Putin’s War in Ukraine Tearing Many Russian Families Apart, Aronova Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 25 – Putin’s war in Ukraine has not only divided Russia from much of the rest of the world but also split many families, some of whose members passionately support what the Kremlin leader is doing and want nothing to do any longer with those who equally passionately oppose it, Marina Aronova says.

            Sometimes these divisions run along generational lines with older people approving the war and younger ones opposing it, but often they reflect ideological differences that are not so easily explained between spouses or between children and their parents, the SibReal portal journalist points out (sibreal.org/a/kak-voyna-v-ukraine-razrushaet-rossiyskie-semi/31919952.html).

            The cases she points to are of course significant to the families involved, but the appearance of such conflicts, their openness, and their intensity matter more generally. On the one hand, they are an indication of just how deeply many Russians on both sides of this divide feel about the war, a division that is unlikely to be overcome anytime soon.

            And on the other, they are a sign of how much Russian society has changed. Certainly family members disagreed about conflicts in the past both in Soviet times and more recently, but rarely have their members been so willing to break relations over them and to talk about what has taken place.

            That they feel so deeply about this war and are so willing to break relations and talk about doing so is the real story because it suggests Russia is joining other countries in which politics is tearing people and families apart, a development that cannot fail to have an impact on how people will react to actions by their governments and the attitudes of others in the future.