Abstract

This commentary considers the idea of collective responsibility in conjunction with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Drawing on the works of Karl Jaspers and Hannah Arendt, I define a grounding for the political necessity of (self-)blaming the whole Russian nation for the crimes of this war. Researching in more detail the theological compounds of Jaspers’ views, I propose to consider the imposition of collective guilt on a nation as a form of archaic curse. I claim that the idea of metaphysical/national responsibility essentially becomes a grip of death that manipulates the promise of renewal to reload hierarchical power cycles.