Yuriy Kobzar17:24, 10.06.24

In Russia, there is a rise in national spirit and enthusiasm due to the war of aggression against Ukraine.

The war of aggression against Ukraine united Russian society, which is happy to serve the interests of its warring state, despite economic and human losses. This is written by one of the most respectable socio-political magazines of the USA, The Atlantic .

The publication notes that even if you put propaganda aside, you can see that “Russia really looks surprisingly united.” Despite the loss at the front of more than half a million people and almost complete isolation from the West, Russian society has not disintegrated and, on the contrary, shows clear signs of social cohesion. 

“One of the explanations for this paradox is that, unlike Western states, which are called to protect the interests of their citizens, Russian society acts with one goal: to serve the interests of its belligerent state,” the publication says.

The author of the article notes that throughout its history – from the time of Mongol domination to the 20th century inclusive, when there was a totalitarian Soviet regime – in Russia there were no mechanisms for the distribution of power and civilized competition of political opinions. People were told that the individual is nothing compared to the interests of society, that is, the state.

“This subjugation of the collective embodied by the Russian state is the reason why Putin has been able to mobilize society so easily for war. (…) The very things that hinder Russia in peacetime are the rigidity of its authoritarianism; its centralized system of government, top-down; its mechanism of repression; and its command economy—become an advantage during periods of conflict, as they enable the government to quickly and ruthlessly mobilize society and industry for its war effort, compensating for the technological backwardness and social atomization that otherwise characterize countries,” writes The Atlantic.

At least part of Russian society directly benefits from the war. The salary of volunteers who volunteered to go to war against Ukraine is at least eight times higher than the national average. A one-time payment to the wounded or, in the case of those who died in battles, to their relatives, is enough to buy previously unaffordable apartments, cars and other expensive goods. 

Russian media, official and unofficial, are full of stories similar to that of Oleksiy Voronin, who does not regret having fought in Ukraine and lost part of his leg there. “Now I have everything,” he says, playing a video game. His mother agrees that her son was lucky that he “only stepped on a landmine” while several of his fellow soldiers were killed. 

“Instead of protesting against a war that for many is literally killing their relatives, young Russians today line up to take aim at captured NATO tanks and attend concerts of patriotic singers chanting “Russia” almost religiously. At least some this passion looks real. More than half of Russians express confidence that their country is moving in the right direction,” the magazine writes.

The author of the publication warns that the “unholy symbiosis” of martial law and the obedient people of Russia is bad news for the free world. This means that Russia can endlessly indulge its expansionist mania, especially against the background of the West’s constant fear of escalation.

“The West must take this threat seriously and respond. And here we can learn another lesson from Russian history. Defeat in a war outside its (Russia’s) borders can be fatal for Moscow’s oligarchs. Only when faced with such a military disaster and humiliation does the Russian autocracy falter and is collapsing,” the author writes, recalling the consequences of Russia’s defeats in the Japanese War of 1904-05 and in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

(C)UNIAN 2024