“Fish rots from the head”—this folk wisdom is borne out by the entire history of Russia, from Rurik to our days. When a healthy elite that serves the people, not its own selfish interests, stands at the head of the state, the country surprises the whole world with unprecedented development pace—remember at least the great Stalin era. Alas, such power is more the exception than the rule, as the collapse of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union proves. Why does our “elite” decompose and degenerate with depressing regularity into a parasitic class that, time after time, destroys the Fatherland? How did Russian nobility, once a pillar of the throne, turn into idlers and destroyers, and the vaunted intelligentsia into a “g… nation”? Why couldn’t even Stalin prevent the betrayal and suicide of the party that had sold itself for Western scraps and shamefully… let the USSR down? What curse hangs over Kremlin rule? Who is to blame for all our misfortunes? And what should be done so that Russia doesn’t “rot from the head” anymore? The new book by the leading historian and publicist of the patriotic forces answers all these questions!