The Forum of the Future 2050 that was held this year in Moscow opened the doors to discussing Russia’s long-term destiny for the first time on a grand scale. There were many opinions on what Russia needs to develop and what potential disasters it needs to avoid. But there was one underlying contant among all of the great guest speakers, journalists, and members of the audience – “how to solve the demographic problems that Russia and the world are facing?”

Recently world famous Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin put together his thoughts into a concrete statement of what needs to be done. Here is that statement in full provided by Tsargrad TV.

“I am proposing three obvious measures that have long been discussed in our society, including at the Tsargrad Institute, World Russian People’s Council, and Tsargrad Society. My proposals summarize the work of thousands of experts—doctors and candidates of science—who have spent years studying demographic problems.

Firstly, we need to return to traditional forms of life because only in a traditional society can there be an increase in population numbers. The path of modernization, based on individualism, leads to collapse. The more modernized society becomes, the fewer children are born. If we want to stop the dying out of the Russian population, we must change the very nature of society itself. It should be religious, traditional, with early marriages, prohibition of abortions and divorces, where large families should become the norm.

Secondly, urban sprawl must be addressed. While the first generation from rural areas may still have many children, subsequent generations produce fewer offspring until the third generation almost ceases reproduction altogether. This is an absolute law of both demography and sociology. We need to transition from high-rise construction to low-rise development. Let cities grow horizontally rather than vertically. Our country has vast amounts of land. Individual housing construction is essential. Hubs should be created between villages within walking distance of schools, hospitals, and social infrastructure, ensuring accessibility from every settlement. In this direction, excellent solutions have already been developed by Konstantin Valeryevich Malofeev and other experts at the Tsargrad Institute.

Thirdly, if we wish to preserve precisely the Russian nation and not replace it with others, labor migration must be reduced to zero. Given our immense territory and wealth, if we ourselves do not die out, then we will receive ‘help’ in disappearing. Replacing the Russian population with migrants is clearly not a solution, as it would no longer be Russia but something else entirely. Therefore, those who defend migration are criminals against the people. How can we replenish the workforce? Through a sharp leap forward in robotics technology and implementation of the first two points: forming a traditional religious mindset, which should be introduced as an absolute imperative, and dispersing city populations.

Question: how will power react to these measures? I think with horror, as they believe alternative paths could yield results. Power has yet to realize that there are no other ways: either implement these measures or practically eliminate the Russian people within just a few decades. But is our own population ready for this? No, immediately I can say.

Therefore, now it is extremely important to change ideology. We have already changed orientation from Westward-looking patriotism towards conservative traditional values instead of liberalism and globalism. Some steps have already been taken in this direction. Now, however, we need to take more serious actions and simply forget about secularism. Secularism, secularism, imposition of individualistic parasites—all of this must come to an end. Only a religious society, only religious norms integrated from birth through kindergarten, school, university, professional training courses, Academy of Sciences—everything must be restructured according to traditional Orthodox principles. This is the guarantee of survival for our nation, and legislation must accordingly be corrected.”

Dugin is right on all accounts, those who live in more religious, more rural, more traditional societies simply have more children. As he states implementation depends a lot on the mentality of the people themselves and thankfully the Special Military Operation has had a massive effect on the mindset of the Russian people. That is to say that the newfound optimism and meaning the conflict has provided should be enough “oomph” to make major changes in society, lifestyle and ideology.

Furthermore, one could say that at the front there has been a “re-Christianing” and return to Orthodoxy among the fighting men. Russia always finds its salvation in the 11th hour.