Paul Goble
Staunton, July 22 – A major source of Soviet patriotism in World War II was the fact that the country’s top leaders, including Stalin, sent their sons and grandsons to fight; but today, members of the Russian elite successfully kept their offspring out of the military, something that is likely to offend ever more Russians as the war lengthens and combat losses mount.
In a nearly 7,000-word article, Mira Livadina, a journalist for Novaya Gazeta, documents the fact that the offspring of Russia’s president, prime minister, spokesman, other senior officials and politicians, and active supporters of Putin’s war have avoided service (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/07/22/elitnye-roda-voisk).
At the very least, this pattern will raise questions in the minds of those who have lost a child, grandchild or husband; but more than that, it will increase the divide between the population and the Kremlin and undercut Putin’s continued effort to portray what he is doing in Ukraine as an extension of what the Soviet leaders and people did during World War II.
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