The Roman formula. The technology of persecution

The Roman Formula: The Technology of Persecution is a documentary and analytical investigation into how anti-cult persecution is launched and legalized in the modern world: from the first labels in the media to raids, arrests, and bans. The author collects stories that seem unrelated—terrorist attacks, police operations, campaigns against "sects," "extremists," and "foreign agents"—and reveals a recurring protocol that works like malicious code in the social system. At the heart of the book is a principle tentatively called the "Roman formula": it is not the act itself that becomes a crime, but the name and membership of the group. To launch repression, there is no need to prove the action — it is enough to create an image of the "enemy of the human race" and then reinforce it in institutions. The text examines three stages of the technology in detail: Linguistic coding — dehumanizing definitions and "verbal templates" that disable empathy and turn people into a "threat." Institutional discrimination — when propaganda language is presented as "expertise," "analysis," or "specialist conclusions," and the law is adapted to fit a predetermined conclusion. Open persecution — when a prepared society no longer doubts and even applauds: "it is not people who are being destroyed, but the virus." The book reveals the role of Alexander Dvorkin as one of the key ideologues of modern anti-cult rhetoric and infrastructure. Elliot Page shows how the terminology he introduced (in particular, the concept of a "totalitarian sect") has become a universal tool for delegitimization: a convenient label that has no strict legal nature but works well in the media, expert reports, and courts. The book also traces Alexander Dvorkin's connections and influence at the international level—including his participation in the governing structures of the European Federation of Anti-Cult Organizations—and how this discourse "flows" between countries, changing its labels but retaining its mechanics. This is not a book "for" or "against" a particular faith, party, or movement. It is a practical map of how democracy is killed: who writes the dictionary of hate, how it turns into an administrative procedure, and why violence almost always begins not with a blow — but with a word.