00:00Something interesting and unsettling is happening inside Russia right now.
00:05People are once again snitching on their neighbors.
00:10A comment overheard at work, a joke online, a teacher's remark, a social media like.
00:16Small things that suddenly become grounds for investigation.
00:22From the outside, it's tempting to explain this with stereotypes about national character.
00:29But that misses the point.
00:32Snitching in Russia has always had a specific purpose.
00:36It fills the space where normal institutions fail.
00:40When the state rules through fear and uncertainty, people start using denunciations as tools
00:47to protect themselves, to settle scores or to get attention from those in power.
00:54My name is Elvira Barry.
00:55I was born in the Soviet Union and today I want to explain why denunciations have returned,
01:01what forms they take and why this phenomenon matters beyond the cliches.
01:08Because snitching is not just a moral problem.
01:12It's a window into how the modern Russian state actually functions.
01:18So, where does this behavior come from?
01:21There is a belief that during Stalin's rule, more than 4 million denunciations were written
01:27and that this proves Russians were morally rotten.
01:31In reality, only a small percentage of the population wrote them,
01:36but those who did often produced hundreds, even thousands.
01:42Why?
01:44Because they saw personal benefit.
01:46In the early 2000s, Stalinism and its culture of informing was widely condemned.
01:54Today, it has returned.
01:56Russian denunciations usually fall into six types.
02:01First, revenge.
02:02Someone wants to punish a person they hate.
02:06My own grandfather was sent to the Gulag because a co-work informed on him.
02:10He worked in economic policing and was accused of lacking proper enthusiasm in hunting enemies of socialism.
02:19Second, fear.
02:21You write a denunciation to prove loyalty.
02:25You are essentially telling the authorities,
02:28I am with you, I'll sacrifice anything for you, even my reputation and my conscience,
02:34as long as you believe that I am loyal.
02:37In essence, they offer someone else as a sacrifice in the hope that the dark, unpredictable forces
02:45of the state will spare them.
02:47My husband's great-grandfather told someone a harmless joke about Stalin.
02:52And that man reported him, terrified that he might be arrested simply for hearing the joke
02:59and failing to turn in the enemy.
03:02Third, denunciation as a way to feel powerful and to reclaim a sense of significance.
03:09This kind of snitching is typical of people who think very highly of themselves,
03:18yet feel unappreciated by society.
03:20They are ambitious, they are demeaning, and a denunciation becomes their way of asserting themselves
03:29and tasting authority over others.
03:33They target those who have achieved something – scholars, journalists, activists or popular artists.
03:40On one hand, they hope the state will finally notice them and reward their vigilance.
03:47On the other hand, they genuinely enjoy the feeling of deciding someone's fate.
03:53And why not?
03:54From their point of view, it's delicious.
03:58Someone has spent a lifetime building a career, imagining themselves important.
04:04And you can catch them on a straight comment or a social media post.
04:10One complaint, and their career is gone.
04:15One of the best-known modern informants is Ivan Abatorov, a journalist from Yekaterinburg.
04:23He once hoped to become a university lecturer, but when that did not work out,
04:29he began denouncing more successful colleagues.
04:32Every day, he combed through opposition media, identifying experts who dared to speak publicly
04:40while still living in Russia, and filing denunciations against them.
04:46Here's how he described his work.
04:49The impact of denunciations like mine is comparable to submarine warfare.
04:55The number of enemy ships actually sunk is small, but the fear of attack keeps the whole fleet in harbor.
05:05Mass denunciations are driven by such professionals.
05:10By Abatorov's own account, he wrote more than 1,300 denunciations in just two years.
05:194. Career advancement
05:21You don't want to hurt someone. You want to impress the authorities and to win favor from those above you.
05:29This is precisely the model embraced by Ekaterina Mizulina, the charming lady who appointed herself director of the Safe Internet
05:40League.
05:40Mizulina enthusiastically supports Putin's campaign to suppress freedom of speech and conscience.
05:47She fights LGBT communities, Google, Wikipedia, popular musicians, anyone who does not fit the Kremlin's ideological purity codes.
05:57According to investigative journalists from Wurstkam, by the end of 2023,
06:03Mizulina had filed complaints against at least 166 individuals and four music groups.
06:10At least 46 people censored their own work to avoid trouble, seven issued public apologies, 14 were charged with administrative
06:21offenses, and four faced criminal prosecution.
06:25She clearly enjoys the backing of the security services and openly threatens anyone who asks her uncomfortable questions.
06:34This remarkable woman has more than a million followers on Telegram, where she posts things like
06:44Deputies have asked Raskomonazor to review the Call of Duty Modern Warfare series for Russophobia and to ban it in
06:52Russia.
06:52They are outraged that Russian soldiers appear as the main antagonists.
06:58Such a portrayal humiliates Russians and contradicts the international situation since our country is shown as the aggressor.
07:06Therefore, they call for banning all modern warfare games, including the remasters.
07:145. Self-denunciation as an act of repentance
07:19This was widespread during Stalin's era.
07:23When you know you are innocent, but can still be arrested at any moment,
07:29you find yourself living in a world ruled by dark forces that are both unknowable and beyond your control.
07:37And you try to negotiate with them.
07:41A denunciation against yourself becomes a ritual of humiliation and admission of your own worthlessness.
07:48And corrupt nature and of the state's absolute power over you.
07:55These public confessions often looked like hysteria.
07:59Communists stood up at party meetings and repented for fought crimes, for secret desires or for misunderstanding Marxism.
08:096. Self-denunciation as a desperate attempt to save yourself or protect your family
08:15In the USSR's punitive system, a sincere confession was considered the queen of evidence.
08:237. Investigators forced people to sign pre-written confessions under torture or by threatening those close to them.
08:307. A father might be told,
08:33We can send your little daughter to a good orphanage.
08:378. Or to one filled with tuberculosis patients.
08:419. In my novel, The Prince of the Soviets, I describe exactly how this machinery could break almost anyone.
08:519. If you are interested in the nature of totalitarianism, read it.
08:5610. The book explains a great deal about modern Russia.
09:0010. This sixth type of denunciation is reappearing today.
09:0510. For now, it is disguised as cooperation with the investigation.
09:0911. You inform on yourself and others to reduce your sentence.
09:1511. If you confess and implicate everyone, you get 5 years.
09:2011. And they get 20.
09:2312. If you don't, the investigators pressure your accomplice.
09:2713. And they get 5 years, while you get 20.
09:3213. The choice is yours.
09:3314. This example shows that the danger to society's moral fabric comes
09:3814. Not from some national character, but from two groups.
09:4214. Outright scoundrels and people with unstable yet aggressive psyches.
09:4815. Ivan Abaturov's colleagues openly call him a weirdo.
09:5215. Every society has such people.
09:5515. And the real question is how the authorities treat this behavior.
10:0016. Do they encourage it?
10:0216. What happens to someone who writes a denunciation against a neighbor or
10:0716. Is this behavior rewarded or treated as the mark of a fool?
10:1316. The problem arises when the authorities choose to use informants to
10:1817. Intimidate and demoralize the population.
10:2117. And here is the real danger.
10:2417. Denunciators never stop at opposing activists.
10:2818. Soon they began writing complaints against bureaucrats.
10:3218. And then their enemies within the system can use
10:3618. And then their enemies within the system can use those same denunciations to settle old scores.
10:4018. Elites in authoritarian regimes always believe they are creating unjust and cruel laws for
10:4818. And that they themselves will remain above the law.
10:5318. Right? Right?
10:5419. No. If law doesn't exist, it doesn't exist for anyone.
11:0019. Not even for them.
11:0119. Before we end, I want to ask you something.
11:0419. Have you ever lived in a place or worked in an environment where people used accusations,
11:12rumors, or anonymous complaints to control others?
11:1620. How did that shape the community around you?
11:2020. Tell me in the comments.
11:2120. These stories matter.
11:2321. If this video gives you a clearer understanding of how modern Russia works,
11:2821. Please consider supporting this channel by liking,
11:3221. Or using Paypal, Superthings, or Thinktank membership.
11:3722. Your support keeps these investigations independent and lets me continue this series
11:42without trying to please anyone. And if you enjoy following the deeper historical threads behind my
11:48work, join me on Instagram or Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I share illustrations,
11:5523. Research notes, and the creative process behind my upcoming novel The Snow Queen's Spring.
12:0223. Thank you for watching and thank you for being part of a community that refuses to look away.
12:0923. Thank you.
Comments