‘Russians Now Used to the Idea that a Nuclear Catastrophe is Likely,’ Eidman Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 27 – As a result of statements by Vladimir Putin and his media and developments in the world like the India-Pakistani conflict, “people in Russia have become more used to the idea that a nuclear catastrophe is a likely reality,” according to Russian sociologist Igor Eidman.

            That development, which doesn’t make such an outcome inevitable but does make it less unthinkable, he says, has been very much on view in the reaction to the singing of a song about nuking the US that was sung four days ago by an Orthodox choir in St. Petersburg’s St. Issac’s Cathedral (newtimes.ru/articles/detail/177595).

            That song, composed in Soviet times as harmless “banter,” has been taken “seriously,” with pro-regime elements celebrating the fact that some is now saying openly what they believe and liberals fearful that the song expresses exactly what the Kremlin would like or even plans to do, Eidman continues. 

            In Soviet times, drunken youths often sang such songs; but no one took them particularly seriously. Now, they have become part of the mainstream.  The St. Isaac’s case has attracted particular attention but there are many other songs of this type now circulating and sending equivalent messages.

            These include “aggressive militarist” lyrics like “Uncle Vova, We’re with You,” “From Donets to the Kremlin is My Motherland,” “The Medal for the Occupation of Washington,” and many others, the sociologist says.  To be cute about nuclear Armageddon has become “glamorous” and thus not so frightening.

            After all, Eidman continues, Putin “himself has said: ‘they all will burn but we will land in paradise. The moral idiotism and irresponsibility of the Russian establishment today is unprecedented as is the threat to the world it represents.”

            Eidman is not the only one to notice this dangerous development. Among other articles this week making related points, see apostrophe.ua/article/world/asia/2019-02-27/pod-ugrozoy-yadernoy-voynyi-chto-proishodit-v-azii-i-chem-eto-grozit-vsemu-miru/24130 . .rosbalt.ru/world/2019/02/27/1766644.html, osbalt.ru/posts/2019/02/27/1766679.html, profile.ru/protection/kak-sverxderzhavy-razbili-bolshuyu-vojnu-na-mnozhestvo-malenkix-69028/, profile.ru/protection/polem-bitvy-tretej-mirovoj-vojny-stanut-ne-sverxderzhavy-a-strany-razdelyayushhie-ix-68936/, and blog.newsru.com/article/27feb2019/prinyuhalis).