FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 76th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia May 9, 2021. Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY./File PhotoI discovered Ivan Ilyín years ago and by chance. I was teaching at Wheaton College in Massachusetts as a visiting Fulbright professor, and in the library I was looking for another book and another author for a Political Science Manual in preparation. His text on The Essence of Consciousness of Law was not useful to me, since his mixture of tsarism and orthodox religion was not suitable for what I was looking for in the relationship between law and politics.I met him again because of the frequency with which he was quoted by Vladimir Putin, especially in solemn ceremonies. I reviewed my notes, re-read it and it really helped me understand it, what it was and what it wasn’t.Ilyín was born into an aristocratic family in Moscow (1883), none other than the Rurika dynasty, that of the original Kievan Rus (that of the year 862). He died in exile in Switzerland (1954), and Putin became personally involved, both in the publication of the 23 volumes of his complete works and in bringing his remains back, and in the consecration of his tomb.Ilyín was a prominent ideologist of the White Movement, and he wrote several books, from politics to spirituality, with Russia and its historical mission being the common denominator of all of them, drawing my attention to the way his ideas are present in Putin’s public pronouncements.He criticized Tsar Nicholas II and held him responsible – as did Putin – for the collapse of the Empire in 1917, and saw in his abdication a crucial mistake, and in general, that of weakness in the exercise of power, is a recurring element in Putin. Ilyín was always a conservative monarchist, in the Russian and Slavophile tradition, and he believed in values such as family and religious piety. His vision of Russia was inextricably linked to the Orthodox Christian religion.In an article on The Russia of the Future (1949), he stated both contrary to “totalitarianism (Marxist)” and to what he called “formal democracy”, proposing a “third way” for the reconstruction of the state and society, which in Putin becomes a fourth way. The revolution was only a parenthesis in a millennial history, an idea also present in another person on whom Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has a great deal of influence, especially in the role of religion in the history and future of Russia.Another idea of his is also present in Putin, that of the harm done to the country by “the weak, damaged self-esteem” of the Russians. Ilyín influences both in seeing Western influence as predatory to their inheritance. Ilyín even once provided a moral justification for fascism, dissociating itself altogether when German Nazism incorporated the Slavic peoples, including Serbs and Russians, into the category of “subhumans”. There is no doubt that there is a thread that goes from Ilyín to Putin and this is a political doctrine based on conservative tradition, as has been highlighted by Timothy Snyder and other historians. Ilyín appears and reappears again and again in Putin, including that lengthy recent speech on the national network, where he tried to explain the reason for the invasion of Ukraine. Two constants from Putin were present in that speech, the ideas of Ilyin and the criticism of Lenin.Also in 2014, after the occupation of Crimea, in his annual message from the State, Putin cited him as one of the most important references, both theoretical and spiritual, of the historical time in which he lived. He quoted it for approval and applause: “Whoever loves Russia must wish for her freedom; first of all, freedom for Russia itself, independence and autonomy, freedom for Russia as a unity of the Russians.”Ilyín is key to understanding Putin’s speech since he took office as president in 2000, to seek to regain Russian pride, the unity of the nation, and to return to being a respected power. It is not only Russia that left the demise of the Soviet Union, but the historical one, which was born in Kiev, and therefore, feels called to represent all Russian-speaking people who left the break in other nations. This is how Crimea, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transnistria and perhaps, part of Ukraine and Belarus appear.Let us say it once, it is the Great Russia and not the reappearance of the Soviet Union, the tsars rather than the communists, Christianity in its orthodox version rather than Marxism. It is anti-liberalism, a deeply traditionalist revolution, which has support not only among European right-wingers but also – and more difficult to explain – among Latin American leftists, although it has never wanted to create an international movement in support of its person, since it is limited to the re-creation of historical Russia. Yes, it is a right and a left that have in common a rejection of university progressivism, postmodernism, identity politics and what they perceive as decadent in their societies. Putin rejects feminism, the movements of sexual diversity, the UN 2030 Agenda and its criticism of capitalism, it is not from socialism, but the Anglo-Saxon version sees it as totally incompatible with Russian tradition. Ilyín also endows him with a concept of authoritarian ruler, which must represent the entire historical tradition, and that such authority must not be shared or broken.This vision of moral and political authority must be ensured by a ruler who rejects Western culture as well as economic dependence and cultural colonization. Ilyín appears as its true leading philosopher, the one who shares the understanding that power is both auctorite and potestas, that is, the right to exercise it and to be obeyed, and that historical mission of vindication of Russian tradition justifies limitations on freedom, and the dominance of the State over the individual, in order to achieve a spiritual rebirth.The values are conservative and as an ancient text says, from which a quote is drawn, used by both Ilyin and Putin, if Moscow is the heart of mother Russia, it was in Kiev that the birth took place. ——————————————————————————————————(*) Lawyer (U. of Chile, U. of Barcelona); Ph.D. in Political Science (Essex University); former presidential candidate (Chile, 2013)