Paul Goble
Staunton, July 18 – Some want Russians to focus all the time on the serious issues arising from Putin’s war in Ukraine, but the experience of World War II and other conflicts shows that humor and the laughter it provokes is vitally necessary for Russians or any other nation to get through tough times, Nataliya Budur says.
The Russian translator and essayist argues that those who want to suppress humor because large issues are at stake forget that that is not what the Soviet Union did during World War II and that humor and the relief from stress it provides are essential to maintaining the health of the population (mk.ru/editions/daily/2025/07/17/smeyatsya-i-radovatsya-vo-vremya-voyny-ne-greshno-a-zhiznenno-neobkhodimo.html).
What is especially intriguing about Budur’s article in Moskovsky Komsomolets is that she uses the Soviet experience in World War II to make her point and even to suggest that humor and laughter promoted then by Soviet films was critical in restoring hope for the future and even bringing victory.
That many members of the Putin elite including perhaps its leader have no sense of humor is obvious and some of them clearly believe that humor at a time like the presence is inappropriate. By suggesting that even Stalin understood that such a position is wrong is the best way of arguing for a change.
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