Per 
Memorandum: Incident 4039-00-БX
From:
AG, Provisional Head of Main Directorate Division 'P'
To:
Igor Korobov, Chief of the Main Directorate of the General StaffCase Summary
On the 30th of September, 2019, a violent skirmish took place between two rival frontline volunteer units of the United Armed Forces of Novorossiya (NAF). Certain details of the case were brought to the GU-P's attention for their strong resemblance to the contents of a heavily damaged and incomplete casefile dating from 1985 that had been recovered by the Commission for the Salvaging and Restoration of Archival Material (CSRAM), and the suspicion was raised of the presence of an anomalous armed formation headed by a documented Person of Interest operating under the command structure of the NAF. Subsequent fieldwork by GU-P Investigative Detail 839-Д from the 5th to the 20th of October confirmed many of these suspicions. On the 19th of October, following a second, more destructive skirmish, the commander of the anomalous unit defected to Ukraine and is believed to have become embedded within a volunteer battalion of the Ukrainian National Guard. Throughout the remainder of the month of October and the entirety of the month of September, multiple unsuccessful attempts were made by the Agency to capture the commander and/or neutralise the anomaly.
On December 1, the town of _ was carpet bombed by an as-yet unidentified military formation1. It is believed that this event effectively neutralised the threat, at least in the short term.
The Agency's investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident is ongoing. Our current assumption is that failure to competently manage and control the aftermath will lead to further incidents.
The relevant materials on the incident have been collected here for your review.Remarks
Although the immediate threat posed by this particular anomaly has been neutralised, the implications of this incident are highly alarming. It has been demonstrated that the existing resources and organising logic of the GU-P (and the security forces of the Russian Federation more generally) are grotesquely insufficient for the management of anomalous threats. It is also a matter of great concern that highly militarised foreign paranormal agencies are apparently able to operate with impunity within what should nominally be Russia's sphere of influence.
Any appropriate response to this fiasco, in my view, necessarily entails the rapid expansion and restructuring of the Armed Forces' capabilities for the management of parathreats. While the resources are not available at present for the restoration of the GU-P to the status that it held throughout the Soviet era, the Agency cannot combat threats such as the one detailed in this report without a significantly greater degree of operational independence and access to military/scientific resources than it currently holds.
The following report was assembled by Researchers Pavelyshyn, Popov, and Stanisleyev, with operators Kovalev and Malenko providing clarification and assistance where necessary. It has been approved for circulation amongst Agency personnel possessing a Baseline Clearance Level of 3 or higher, and has been made available to the Chief of the Main Directorate and to the Minister of Defence. Further access is to be granted on a case-by-case basis.
Notes and Observations
Throughout the course of the investigation, Researchers Pavelyshyn and Popov both maintained logs for the compilation of noteworthy evidence and observations. The following extracts have been edited for relevance. The conditions and procedures for the obtaining of the unedited documents are identical to those for the interview transcripts.
9 October. We arrived in the AOP encampment at around 0830.
Timeline of events
The following is an outline of ID 839-Д's 11-day investigation into the events surrounding the conflict between the AOP and Cossack units. The evidence and findings gathered over the course of this investigation are presented more fully in the subsequent sections of this report.
October 8
ID 839-Д arrives in the town of , Donetsk People's Republic. First contact is made with Captain Lemyonovski, the CO of joint Russian/NAF operations in the area. Lemyonovski claims to be in the process of managing and negotiating the ceasefire between the two rival units. Arrangements are made to accompany the ceasefire detail during their visits to the AOP and Cossack encampments.
October 9
ID 839-Д arrives in the AOP-occupied village of _. Ten of the AOP troops who had participated in the initial skirmish are severely ill with an as-yet unidentified disease2 and are awaiting medevac. Attempts to interview the affected troops prove unsuccessful, owing to the nature of the illness.
October 10
Researcher Pavelyshyn interviews Lieutenant Mikhalev, the commanding officer of the AOP unit. Mikhalev alleges that Vasilyev is responsible for the murder of the Father Borovchenko, a parish priest belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). This accusation is repeated in multiple interviews with other AOP volunteers. The ceasefire detail claims that it is aware of the allegations and is conducting a thorough investigation.
October 12
ID 839-Д arrives in the Cossack-occupied village of . Researcher Popov attempts to enter the unit's provisional headquarters in the village church but he is refused entry. Members of the Cossack unit consistently refuse to give interviews or answer questions.
October 13
Researcher Popov interviews Hetman Vasilyev. Vasilyev claims to be holding three AOP men prisoner, denies the allegations raised by Mikhalev's unit, and accuses them of having engaged in sectarian violence against civilians, before proceeding to terminate the interview.
October 14
Resarchers Pavelyshyn and Popov attempt to arrange an interview but are met with resistance from the Cossacks. Eventually, they are allowed to speak with one of the prisoners but they are not allowed to occupy the same room as him, instead speaking to him through a hole in a locked door.
October 15
Cossacks, apparently with the assistance of civilians, begin carrying out excavation work in the cellar and inside the church. ID 839-Д is barred from speaking to the civilians or entering the church. Attempts to ascertain the purpose of the excavation prove fruitless.
October 17
Ukrainian patrol enters within range of the village, leading to an exchange of fire. Cossacks give chase as Ukrainians attempt to retreat. Cossacks return an hour later with 5 mutilated corpses, claiming to have completely neutralised the enemy unit. They are later seen moving the corpses into the church.
October 19
AOP unit raids [redacted village] with the support of 1 Russian AFV3. Attack is initially successful and AOP members commit multiple acts of arson with the apparent intent of razing the village. Cossacks regroup and re-engage with the support of multiple anomalous entities of unconfirmed origin. ID 839-Д loses two operators while attempting to extract themselves from the area.
A more detailed account of this event is presented under the 'Incidents' section of this report.
October 20
Russian military command receives a communication from Hetman Vasilyev informing them of his defection to Ukraine, along with the defection of ten members other members of his unit. ID 839-Д conducts a survey of the remains of [redacted village] and terminates the investigation.
Interview transcripts
Over the course of the investigation, ID 839-Д conducted and recorded a total of 45 interviews. For personnel with the requisite clearance, the unedited transcripts may be obtained by submitting form З-18 (Request for Disclosure of Research Materials) to the the GU-P's Records Officer.
The following interview was conducted by Researcher Pavelyshyn on the 10th of October in Mikhalev's provisional headquarters (an uninhabited residence in the village of [redacted]) two days after Investigative Detail 839-Д's arrival. Lieutenant Mikhalev was the commanding officer of the AOP unit that instigated the attack. The interviewee agreed to be recorded.
RP: Lieutenant. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Junior Lieutenant Pavelyshyn, from the Directorate.
M: I'm honoured. Lieutenant Leonid Mikhalev, of the the Donetsk Battalion of the Orthodox Alliance.
RP: You've been informed of the purpose of our investigation, yes?
M: Yes. I'll do my best to answer whatever questions you have.
RP: Appreciated. Before we get to the incident in question, could you please inform us about the background of your organisation? Why did you join them?
M: Right, yes. We're affiliated with a confederation of volunteer organisations for Russian patriots and Orthodox believers. I joined because of obligations to my nation and to my faith.
RP: Our records tell us that you had previously served in the Rosgvardia.
M: Yes, as a non-commissioned officer from 2009 til 2015. Border control. After I was discharged a number of my comrades who shared my convictions answered the call and I followed them.
RP: How long have you been active out here, and at what point did you first make contact with Hetman4 Vasilyev's unit?
M: I've personally been here for seven months, and I've been commanding this unit for about three of them. The old commander was a friend of mine from the Guard, and he was killed in a skirmish.
[Sips water]
We were aware of the existence of Vasilyev and his unit for a while but we first encountered him in early September, when we were ordered to assist them in the clearing of farm houses about 10 miles back from where we're sitting right now.
RP: What were your impressions of them?
M: It was a relatively uneventful operation but my men found it unsettling. We'd heard… rumours about him.
[Pause]
Of course everybody understands that he's, a pagan. We've all encountered rodnovers5 and Cossacks out here. But to be a rodnover and a Cossack is a strange proposition. And other Cossacks seem to shun him.
[Two-second silence]
The Hetman pushed us around a lot despite the fact that we had many more men than him, and we spent most of the operation apart from his unit. The Ukrainians cleared out pretty fast when they saw us coming and there was some exchange of fire, which punctured a tire but didn't result in any casualties.
RP: Can you elaborate a little more on the nature of the rumours surrounding the Vasilyev and his unit prior to the incident?
M: [Deep breath, followed by three second silence. Sips water.]
That they collected trophies. Ears, genitals, fingers. And that they desecrated Christian shrines or used them to conduct pagan rites. I never saw evidence of the former but we saw a lot of the latter. After that first operation they looted a local church and broke its windows, and I'm reliably informed by a couple of men that managed to look inside that they erected an idol on the altar.
And, please understand, I consider rodnovery to be a heresy but I don't have qualms serving alongside them in this fight. We've fought alongside units with individual rodnovers, and in one case we co-ordinated with an all-rodnover volunteer unit for security operations. The mere fact of their paganism doesn't provoke me but.
[Pause]
Vasilyev insults Christ. His paganism isn't like any other I've seen.
[Pause]
RP: How so? Have you seen their rites?
M: No. But I've seen their idols and symbols and I've heard them talking. I don't think they have gods, strictly speaking, although it's hard to say. It's not the Native Faith, it's something else. The rodnovers I've fought with in the past, you learned to recognise different symbols, they'd have tattoos or necklaces, they erected their shrines in the open. I saw none of that with Vasilyev's men. Everything happens behind closed doors. Vasilyev is the only one whose face I've even seen.
RP: Captain, what motivated you to open fire on the Cossack unit's positions? From what your men told me, there was a dispute over the fate of a priest?
M: Right, right. Well.
[2 second silence]
After we took these villages the Hetman chose to establish his headquarters in the parish church, which he barred our men from entering. The nerve of it was staggering, this pagan barring Orthodox believers from entering their own place of worship. They desecrated the building as well. I made a number of informal complaints to the higher-ups about it, I wanted them to issue an official order that would give us jurisdiction over Orthodox worship sites but we got nothing.
RP: And this is what motivated the attack?
M: No, Doctor. There were confrontations between my men and his over the matter and Roman- I'm sorry, Junior Lieutenant Fedorov- begged me for permission to fire on the Cossacks when he saw them looting the church but I refused. I'm not stupid. Winning a war is hard enough as it is.
[Pause.]
There was a lot I was willing to tolerate for the sake of organisational unity.
RP: But?
M: But.
[3-second silence. The Lieutenant looks at the ceiling and then back at the interviewer.]
…After the operation ended, we made contact with the local priest. A very pious man, a holy man. He had made many sacrifices for the faith.
The day after Vasilyev took over the church, the priest vanished. We all had our suspicions but it wasn't til a couple of days after that we found his habit in the woods, hanging from a tree whose branches were adorned with strips of flayed skin. There was a, I guess you would call it a panel of skin nailed to the trunk, and it had a symbol burned into it, and the symbol was the same as a symbol that I had seen them spraypaint on the side of a burnt out farmhouse the month before.
[Pause]
And look. War isn't pretty. I'll admit that we've… punished civilians before, or used advanced interrogation methods. After news of the schism6 hit, we raided some homes, some churches. There were beatings, there were shootings, houses were burned down7.
But this was sickening in a different kind of way. I don't know how to describe the effect it had on us really. You had to have been there to understand, I think. It made every other atrocity seem, mundane. I don't think I've ever felt dread like that before.RP: And this was what prompted the attack.
M: Yes.
[Pause]
After we came across that scene, there was a unanimous agreement amongst the officers that we needed to take matters into our own hands.
RP: [Consulting notes] The information I have tells me that at the time your unit had 35 men and his had 27. Am I correct in surmising from the current headcount that you lost ten men in the skirmish?
M: Unfortunately, yes. They had fewer men but more heavy weapons. 15 of us engaged them at the southern tip of the village while the other 20 attempted to enter the village proper. 10 of those men made it out and we're currently not sure as to whether or not the remainder are dead or, being held prisoner.
RP: Mhm. These ten men who escaped are the ones who are currently awaiting medical attention, yes? I visited some of them. Do you have any idea how they could have ended up that way?
M: I don't know. I genuinely have no idea. Our medical officer has no idea what it is. My guess… would be that they obtained samples of some disease from a hospital at some point, but that's just conjecture.
[3 second silence]
The men are very frightened. They think the Cossacks used witchcraft of some kind. I try not to encourage it but once that kind of talk grows legs it's impossible to stop it. I don't blame them either. That man is not on our side.
RP: What's your evaluation of the response from the DPR general staff so far?
[4 second silence]
M: [Exhales slowly]
Any response that doesn't at the very least end with the removal of that unit from the command structure is an act of negligence.
[Pause]
I'd go so far as to say that, to allow that man to continue to be a part of Novorossiya is to commit treason. He's an enemy of Russia, he's an enemy of Christendom.
[Pause]
I refuse to serve alongside him.
RP: I see.
[Pause]
Well, I think that about wraps up this interview. Your testimony is invaluable, Lieutenant.
M: Please lobby your superiors to do something. Our CO doesn't have the spine to stand up to him.
RP: Thank you for your time, Lieutenant.
The following interview was conducted by Researcher Popov on October 13, in the back office of the building that had previously housed the village of [redacted]'s pharmacy, five days after Investigatory Detail 839-Д's arrival in the area. Maxim Vasilyev was the commander of the Cossack volunteer unit that controlled the village from September 29 til October 20, after which he defected to Ukraine. The interviewee agreed to be recorded but terminated the interview prematurely.
RU: In the reports available to us you and your unit are identified as Cossack volunteers, but as far as can be discerned you are not associated with the structure of the Great Host, or with any other existing Cossack military organisations.8. Can you comment?
V: We are not a part of any host other than our own. Other Cossacks reject us for our faith. We are an independent volunteer unit.
RU: What faith is that? Several of the witnesses we interviewed identified it as a variant of the Native Faith, although Lieutenant Mikhalev expressed doubts.
V: It is unsurprising that he would say something like that. Yes, it is the Native Faith. Our stanitsa was converted in 1918 and we have practiced it in this form ever since.
RU: Can you describe the sequence of events that led to your family's adoption of the Native Faith? I haven't been able to find records of modern Cossacks practicing any religion other than Orthodoxy.
V: I couldn't describe the exact sequence of events. My great-great grandfather converted in 1900 but we did not adopt it fully until we went to fight with Baron Ungern.
RU: This is Roman von Ungern-Sternberg?
V: Yes. A remarkable man. We will not see his like for a long time.
RU: Can you elaborate?
[Pause]
V: The reasons my forebears went to fight with Ungern are the same reasons that I have come to fight here today. It is the struggle for survival against the international Jewry.[Leans back in chair]
Then it was the Bolsheviks and now it is the European Union- in many ways they are different from one another but they are united by their association with the Jews. Ungern was not like the other Whites. He did not compromise. He stood entirely against everything that the Reds stood for, against the rule of chimneysweeps and factory workers, against the modern world. He had no time for half measures.
RU: I see.
[Pause]
Why did it take as long as it did for the unit to adopt the Native Faith?
V: Well. First I must clarify that it was not called the Native Faith then. The word rodnover, rodnovery, it did not exist. Properly, it has no name. Native Faith is a new name for old gods, and these are the gods of the Slavonic peoples. When my great-grandfather was converted, the others tolerated it because they respected him but they were not convinced. It was not until we marched with Baron Ungern and saw the things we saw in Mongolia that we became convinced.
[Pause]
The baron was not just a general. The Mongols believed he was the reincarnation of Genghis Khan. He was not a regular man, and the war he was fighting was the war for the resoration of our gods. It was on the battlefield with the Baron that my forebears became convinced.
RU: How did your great-grandfather become converted?
V: I don't know. He had been a Starovér before, although I'm not sure what the exact denomination was.
[Pause]
RU: What did they see in Mongolia that convinced them?
V: These things are not for unbelievers to know, I'm afraid.
RU: I see.
[Consulting notes]
Can you describe the incident that took place on October the 8th? Who initiated the attack, and what prompted it?
[Pause]
V: There is very little to describe. Captain Mikhalev was vocal about his disapproval of our religion. He never used the word 'Satanic' around me but his attitude conveyed the level of mistrust and fear that such a word implies.
[Pause]
The day before the encounter, we had taken this village and the one that his unit currently occupies. We were still embroiled in the process of establishing ourselves when his unit began to fire on us from their encampment. We returned fire. He attempted to advance on us and we repelled him.
RU: He currently has ten men that have yet to be accounted for. Am I to assume that these men are prisoners?
V: We have three prisoners and the rest were killed. It is regrettable that such a thing has taken place but that is the nature of war.
RU: It'll be necessary for us to visit and speak to these prisoners at some point. Could that be arranged?
[Pause]
V: … Certainly. It is a sensitive situation. As of this moment we have determined that it is necessary to hold these men in order to guarantee our safety from further attacks as the negotiations with the central command continue.
RU: You're holding members of an allied unit hostage?
V: They are being fed and looked after. We are taking the necessary steps to ensure that such an incident does not occur again.
RU: Right.
[Consulting notes]
10 of the ROA men who entered the village made it back to their own camp. At this time they are all incapacitated with an illness that has not yet been identified. They are speculating as to whether or not this illness was caused by your men.
V: A fanciful allegation if I ever heard one. Our resources are either given to us by the DPR or are seized from the enemy. We are soldiers. Nobody in this unit holds a university degree. We do not have the skills or materials available to be synthesising biological weapons.
RU: How would you explain this sudden, hyperlocalised outbreak then? Their bodies are covered with boils and pustules, and several of them have developed extremely swollen-
V: I am not a doctor and I cannot answer such questions.
RU: Alright.
[Pause]
They are accusing you of the murder of a priest. Mikhalev claims that this was the motivation for the attack.
V: I'm sure they are. Accusing your rivals of war crimes is a trick that this war has cheapened. Anything that he claims my men have done, his have done ten times over. The Orthodox Army is a band of thugs. After the news of the schism hit, he and several other units of that band of thugs took many liberties. I'm sure he has shown you the photographs of the priest he lynched? Or maybe he fears too much to be punished for things that he brags about when his higher-ups aren't watching.
[Vasilyev takes a sip of water]
He is a petty coward.
RU: One of his NCOs has accused you of witchcraft.
V: We pray for victory as any man might but we have never engaged in witchcraft. Such speculation is founded on a mixture of laughable ignorance and outright bigotry.
RU: Is it true that your men looted and descrated churches?
V: I wouldn't know anything about that.
[Pause]
I am sure you understand, Doctor. We are fighting a war. It is a dangerous and chaotic game that we are playing out here. Many things become damaged or go missing. I have witnessed a number of events that seem to defy easy explanations, because the fog of war obscures simple operations from view. No commanding officer can be expected to account for the actions of every individual soldier. I know that you know this, Doctor. You are an intelligent man.
RU: I see. But-
V: I should make myself clear: our people have been dealing with men like Mikhalev for a century. Our conversion was not tolerated by other Cossacks and we bought our right to live apart from them with blood. After the defeat of Baron Ungern the Reds and their allies tried to exterminate us. Under the rule of the Judeo-Bolsheviks the majority of us were slaughtered and scattered to the four winds. If Stalin could not kill us then what threat does this gangster pose? The revival of our host has been a hard journey and we are not yet at its end.
RU: There have been rumours of necromancy. Do you know what events may have taken place that could give rise to such rumours?
V: We are not necromancers. We do not practice black magic of any sort. We are soldiers.
[Vasilyev stands]
V: If you will excuse me. There are things that need attending to. Good day, Doctor. I wish you the best of luck with your investigation.
[Vasilyev leaves the room]
Incidents
Personnel
The fieldwork that forms the basis of this report was conducted by Investigative Detail 839-Д.
ID 839-Д was comprised of 6 personnel in total: 2 researchers, 1 of whom was a civilian, and 4 armed operators belonging to the GU-P's special forces annex.9. During the AOP10 raid on the 19th of October two agents were lost, one of whom has been confirmed dead and the other of whom is missing but should be considered dead until contrary evidence is provided.
Research
Lev Pavelyshyn: Junior Lieutenant, Kandidat nauk Biological Sciences. Age 37. Published in Forensic Science, specialised in Forensic Biology.
Roman Popov: Civilian consultant, Kandidat nauk Anthropological Sciences. Age 35. Published in Cultural Anthropology, specialised in premodern Eastern European religious practices.
Other
Makhmud Kovalev: Sergeant, aged 32.
Sergei Letov: Junior Sergeant, aged 26. Last seen attempting to break down the front door of _ Church alongside a squad of AOP troops during the 19th of October raid. Presumed to have been killed upon entry.
Alexander Malenko: Private, aged 24.
Iaroslav Romanovsky: Private, aged 23. Killed by gunshot of uncertain origin during October 19 raid.
| Researcher Pavelyshyn | Survived |
| Doctor Popov | Survived |
| Sergeant Kovalev | Survived |
| Junior Sergeant Letov | Missing, presumed deceased |
| Private Malenko | Survived |
| Private Romanovsky | Deceased |
Memorandum: ID 842-A progress report, Jan 12 2020
From:
Semen Grigoryev, Researcher attached to Investigative Detail 842-ATo:
AG, Provisional Head, GU Division 'P'ID 842-A's investigation is ongoing.
On the 2nd of January, 2020, Anatoly Aleksandryuk Renko, assistant professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology at the Ivan Franko National University of Kharkiv, was reported missing by a coworker after an unexplained two week absence. On the 4th of January, a badly mutilated corpse was removed from the river Kharkiv that dental records identified as belonging to Renko. The body had been partially flayed and much of his brain appeared to have been removed through a circular hole with a diameter of 2.5cm that had been drilled in the back of his skull. His right buttock appeared to have been branded with a symbol whose exact nature and identity have yet to be ascertained. Prior to this incident, Renko was already being subjected to covert surveillance by the Directorate for his involvement in militant right-wing and anti-Russian political organisations11, but his case was not considered to fall within GU-P's operational scope until it was noted that the branded symbol bore a close resemblance to a symbol that had been recorded by Agency investigative personnel during the events of Incident 4039-00-БX.
The following documents (as well as a number of documents that were judged not to be of direct relevance to this investigation) were recovered from Renko's personal notes by a Directorate operative embedded within Ukrainian law enforcement. The format and titling of the first document is consistent with the format that he used to outline his undergraduate lectures12, although current evidence indicates that this particular lecture was never delivered. The title and contents of the second document suggest that it is an incomplete early draft13 for an address at the upcoming annual meeting of the Slavonic Reactionary Coalition14. Both documents contain discussions of "Nälkä", an anomalous religious movement which is believed to have played a central role in Incident 4039-00-БX- in addition, the contents of the second document bear very strong resemblances to the sentiments expressed by POI-4039-I ("Maxim Vasilyev") in interviews with Agency investigative personnel.
Nälkä and Neoanimism: A Deleuzian Perspective
1. What is the nature of living things, and what demarcates a living thing from a non-living thing? One way to approach this problem would be to consider the distinction as being, at its heart, the distinction between the logic of swarms and the logic of automata.
2. The automaton is a thing of precision. Its operations are fixed and inflexible. It performs functions but it does not have agency and it does not live, because the rational precision and cleanliness with which the automaton is assembled cannot, does not have the space for autonomous change and adaptation. That kind of autonomy can only arise within the context of a swarming apparatus.
3. The swarm is unstable, the swarm is messy. The swarm operates according to rules, certainly, for if there was no order the swarm would not be an apparatus at all- it would be unable to function.
4. But the swarm would also not be able to function if it did not possess the capacity to reconfigure its internal order, to form structures for the accomplishing of tasks that dissolve immediately to make way for new ones.
5. The automaton is a thing of stable hierarchy and fixed rigid organisation, and this rigidity allows for a kind of efficiency and power that could not be replicated otherwise. But this rigidity also forecloses the possibility for the emergence of life- the universe as a whole could not function as a single automaton, because the basic substance of the world develops its texture from multiplicity and difference. The automaton is an augment to the swarm but it cannot replace it.
6. The swarm is reactive; it has tools, not plans. The swarm may have objectives but the way it goes about fulfilling those objectives is not fixed. This flexibility is what makes the swarm effective at overcoming obstacles. The more flexible a swarm is, the more effective and fearsome it becomes.
7. The swarm can take many forms, or rather, many things can behave as swarms. Many things that are not swarms of themselves rely on the support of a swarming apparatus to survive.
8. Stasis is anathema to the swarm- in the absence of activity, the swarm will either stagnate or collapse.
9. The more the automaton comes to mimic the logic of the swarm, the more it comes to resemble a living thing. One could conceive of a swarm apparatus composed entirely of automata- indeed, we could conceive of all living things as being swarms of automata, automata that are themselves composed of smaller swarms.
(A riddle: Is a human being a swarm or an automaton? The answer: it is a swarm inhabiting an automaton. The mind is unambiguously a swarm- an individual locust has no mind, but a plague of locusts is possessed of a deep and ruthless cunning. The emergence of the mind and similar apparatuses cannot take place within the relations that the logic of automata deals in- consciousness and related phenomena are functions of systems organised according to swarm-logic.)
10. Consider the Mongol Hordes. Their rampage across Asia is perhaps the single greatest expression of the human swarm. The most fearsome engine of war to have ever existed, assembled and presided over by nomads.
11. The nation state is organised according to the logic of the automaton, and the nomad horde is organised according to the logic of the swarm. It is no accident that the Mongols were able to wage war for as long and as effectively as they did, for the swarming apparatus is more suited to constant motion than to sedentary governance.
12. Within the nomad horde, automaton-logic is subordinate, a means of expanding the capabilities of the mobile swarm.
14. The story of modernity is the story of the slow capture of life by the automaton-logic, of the imposition of clear demarcations, of stasis. The organising tendencies of modernity aspire to extinguish the swarm, and, by extension, life.
15. Modern man's drive towards rationalisation is the ultimate manifestation of the death drive. For the eradication of the 'irrational' swarming apparatuses in favour of 'rational' apparatuses driven by automaton-logic is unsustainable and unrealisable.
16. In reality, the automaton and the swarm are not evenly matched tendencies, and the quest to permanently assert the primacy of the former over the latter is incompatible with the fundamental facts of the world that we inhabit.
17. Nälkä is not necessarily against the assembling of automata. However, it is fundamentally opposed to the modern project for the establishment of automaton-logic as the dominant organising tendency of the universe.
18. Compare Nälkä with modern folkish neopagan religious movements ('rodnovery') and it becomes clear that the latter's rhetoric about the rejection of modernity is completely hollow.
19. Rodnover symbolism is obsessed with radial patterns, with wheels. For them, time loops around on itself- the immortal sunwheel, shining and spinning forever, something stable that underpins the fabric of reality, a light breathing lifeforce into the world.
20. The wheel is significant because it is perhaps the ultimate symbol of the automaton-tendency, the desire for fixed order. The wheel's smooth shape, useless water-treading repetition, and brute mechanical simplicity have nothing to do with the infinitely more complex and nuanced systems of locomotion that emerged from the biological swarm-apparatus.
21. The romantic neopagan conception of life- as a thing with an essential form that enters into our world from the outside- disguises their abhorrence of life as it actually exists. Their relationship to the glorious volatility of the animate world is one of terror and disgust.
22. In reality it is not the eternally turning wheel that describes the shape of time, but the endlessly expanding mycelium. It is not stable and it is not fixed- it is constantly multiplying, expanding, changing shape. It is alive, it is an engine for the production of difference, its immortality comes not from the fact that it stays the same but from the fact that it is infinitely iterating into new forms.
23. Nälkä is more authentically primordial than the majority of the so-called 'pagan' religious movements because of its rejection of stasis. It shuns of the false promise of transcendence and opts instead for the embrace of the immanent.
I. Introduction
II. What is Nälkä?
III. Nälkä and Modernity (The Insurgent Swarm)
IV. Ungern-Sternberg, the Reactionary Crusade, and Ungernist-Nälkism
V. Concluding Remarks and the Case for Alliance
Roman von Ungern-Sternberg15 had an intuitive grasp of the abomination of modernity and in the figure of Genghis Khan he caught a glimpse of the antidote- a vast war machine organised according to the principles of the swarm, a nomadic apparatus that would swamp the automaton-states and absorb their capabilities into its roiling mass. Constantly expanding, never settling, re-asserting the order of the universe in a colossal outpouring of tears and blood. But it was not until he was initiated into the Nälkic rite, however, that he truly began to see. The nomad on horseback is an automaton with the capability to form incredibly potent swarming apparatuses- under certain conditions. The Mongol Hordes thrived in the wide, flat Steppes of Central Asia just as fungus thrives in warmth and damp.
The Nälkic Flesh, on the other hand, does not need flat ground, or moisture, or sunlight- it thrives in every terrain. In Nälkä, Baron Ungern saw the potential for the construction of a swarming apparatus that could come to encompass the entire universe. The Adytic paradise, the eternal swarm- the total reversal of the detestable changes that modern man's fascination with order had wrought.
The war that he waged stands today as one of the most potent episodes in the long history of the swarm's ongoing insurgency against the forces that seek to enslave it. Had he succeeded, Ulan Bator would have become ground zero for the resurgence of the Deathless Empire.
The Reds, the Jews, and their Mekhanite toadies all believed they had crushed the threat when they put the Baron in front of a firing squad but they failed to see the futility of it all, failed to recognise the hubris in the notion that automaton-logic could reign forever.
Baron Ungern is not dead; it takes more than a firing squad to do away with a Karcist of his power. He has lain dorman beneath Ulan Bator for a century, serving in the undying temple of the Bogd Khan, and his zeal has only grown in that time. As we speak, his disciples are preparing for his return.
Even now, we are seeing the glimmers of the dawn of the next great crusade. When the Baron finally emerges from his hive, he will be more powerful and more hungry than ever before- his second coming will mark the beginning of the final drama, the last great war.
Taken to their conclusion, the goals of the reactionary movement and the goals of the Ungernist-Nälkä movement are the same. In fact, it is not just the goals that are the same, for Nälkä and reactionaryism are really just two heads of the same hydra. It is the duty of the true enemies of automaton-modernity to band together. It is imperative that we support the coming Ungernist crusade.
The time will soon come to finish what the Grand Karcist began. The end of the tyranny of reason and the dawn of the age of flesh.
As of this writing, ID 842-A's investigation into the possible connections between Renko's case and Incident 4039-00-БX is being hampered by logistical difficulties. We are currently in the process of lobbying for further resources.
