At last, we have been given the only possible National Idea. Putin declared it: patriotism. Being a patriot is no longer just a recommendation; it is now a direct order. And since it is the only possible idea, we must immediately discard all other ideas from our minds, except for patriotism.

The only thing left is to agree on what patriotism actually means. And here, one can easily make a mistake. Someone might suddenly, out of old habit, say that being a patriot means loving one's Motherland. Perhaps that was once the intention. But now it means something entirely different. Being a patriot now means loving the authorities and loudly applauding their every whim.

"Patriotic writers," the rulers of "patriotic thoughts," set an example of how to love the Motherland correctly. Doubt yourself? Read their articles! When the Kremlin "fights the fascist hydra in Kyiv," they summon the ghosts of German executioners and Ukrainian collaborators into our world with their incantations. When the Kremlin stirs up trouble in Donbas, they proclaim the second coming of the Russian World. When the Kremlin starts bombing random points on the world map with blindfolded guesses, they glorify the daring of our bombers. And all the while, they practice annihilating the intelligentsia, evidently sensing that it will be unavoidable.

Because the intelligentsia is accustomed to criticizing the authorities—except, of course, for the tamed and groomed intelligentsia. They are used to purring loyally and slipping their weary necks under the authoritative hand.

And those who criticize the authorities are, naturally, "non-patriots." Soon, they might even become "enemies of the people." A label well understood by the people, one that proved its worth in its time, reflecting precisely the spirit of the fashionable nostalgia for the past.

Yet, our country could have been offered another national idea instead of blind and all-forgiving love for those who today call themselves Russia.

An idea that aligns with the present, not the past.

Firstly, Progress. Because Cossacks-Stalin-Orthodoxy-Empire-birch sap-Khokhloma-grandfathers fought-oprichnina and even CRIMEA—all of this is hopelessly in the past. And economic isolationism throws the country back into the past. Import substitution will result in technological lag by decades. We are not just falling behind; we are also calling these developmental delays our national peculiarity and taking pride in them.

To even come close to the West, which is already stepping into the future—with bioengineering, internet economy, robotic electric vehicles, and drone armies—we need urgent modernization. This modernization, like any accelerated modernization, should be based on purchasing and copying modern technologies, so we don't waste decades reinventing the wheel. Our own scientific and technological revolution began with Rosnano and ended in Skolkovo.

Now, speaking of modernization has become indecent because it is all pitiful Medvedevism and shameful Westernism. But it is patriotic to wear a papakha and cross oneself broadly, acknowledging only the usefulness of "Iskanders" and "S-400" complexes in technology.

We vitally need progress. We must catch up, make up for lost time. Not only in the fields of science and technology but also in terms of civilization. Because our chauvinism and open imperial nationalism, our arrogant condemnation of tolerance and multiculturalism, our misunderstanding and denial of globalization—this is all from the last century, the twentieth. Our longing for a Leader also belongs to the twentieth century. And our neglect of our own goods, our own rights, and our own lives is a clear sign of all medieval cultures. And just as much, we need Order. Not in the fascist sense of the word, but in the legal sense. Equality of all before the law. Adherence to the same rules by all members of society, the abolition of estates, castes, and classes. An honest court, an honest police, an honest prosecutor's office, in the end—instead of private corporations that sell us violence. Order in the sense of a Constitution that should be carved in stone, not etched with a plastic knife on clay tablets. Order means guarantees of people's basic human rights. Do we need democracy? Yes. Honest elections? Of course. Liberty, equality, fraternity? As much as possible. But nothing is as necessary for today's Russia as order and progress. Without order and progress, today's Russia risks simply ceasing to exist.

Order and Progress. This is what our national idea must be today.

It's easy to remember: it's written on the national flag of Brazil. "Ordem e Progresso" has been there since 1889. Apparently, this need was felt in Brazil even then. We've only reached this state now.