Two of Russia’s heavy-hitting analytical institutions have recently admitted in a 46-page report titled “Russia’s Living Idea-Dream” that Russia has no ideology and thus no identity. More alarmingly, it states that nations without ideologies and identities are doomed.

Readers expecting a plethora of great ideas in the report will be sorely disappointed. But they may be interested in observing the idea-dream project’s self-destruction.

“Why Has Russia’s Idea-Dream Been Absent Until Now?” the report’s authors ask. “It has not been absent entirely,” they answer, seemingly unaware of the contradiction. “Its elements have surfaced not only in a deluge of philosophical and journalistic articles, but increasingly in the speeches of the president and other national leaders.”

Which is to say, the Russian idea-dream has been confined to what remains of the country’s political elites and thinking class, and of course the two think tanks responsible for the project.

“We need a guiding star that we can harmoniously follow,” the report says. “We need a forward-looking........

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