Kremlin ‘Well Aware’ How Patriotic Wave of 1914 Ended in Revolution in 1917, Obukhov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 29 – The Putin regime is “well aware” how the patriotic upsurge at the start of World War I in 1914 ended in the revolutions that overthrew tsardom and then the Provisional Government only three years later and thus is attentive to signs that things are again moving in that direction, Sergey Obukhov says.

            And such signs are appearing regularly, the head of the KPRF analytic service says, with the flight abroad of many when the regime threatened mobilization and the shift in public concerns from economic to political issues as the war has dragged on (ng.ru/politics/2024-09-29/1_3_9103_sociology.html).

            Such awareness of the possibility of a repetition of earlier events acts as a constraint on Russian policy now, Obukhov continues, limiting what the Kremlin may try to do or leading it to conclude that it must use even more repression to keep people in line, however dangerous such a course may ultimately prove.