Leon Aron’s new book, Riding the Tiger: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the Uses of War, is a valuable contribution to our understanding of Russia’s autocracy. Here’s his opening summary: “Having saddled the tiger of militarized patriotism, Putin expertly made it trot in the right direction. But the animal required more and more red meat; as it grew, it became harder to dismount.” Aron explains how Putin has placed militarized patriotism at the center of Russian life, and how he is reshaping the way ordinary Russians view their country and their history – and what they need to do to prepare for their struggle with the democratic West. Putin is driven by a desire to avenge the collapse of the Soviet Union, rebuild Russia’s empire – including the take-over of Ukraine, and restore Russia as a world power.
After the anti-Putin demonstrations following his re-election as president in 2012, the Kremlin expanded its program for training Russia’s youth morally, psychologically, and physically to defend their country and prepare for military duty “in peacetime and war.” This included resurrecting Soviet military sporting events to encourage patriotism, as well as the “physical culture and sports complex” GTO (the acronym “Ready for Labor and Defense”) for all Russians between the ages of 6 and 70. In 2019, Channel One, Russia’s most popular state television network, targeted Russian youth with around-the-clock programming dedicated exclusively to describing World War II and how the Soviet Union was solely responsible for defeating the Nazi regime.
There is little western press coverage of the developments described by Leon Aron, such as how the Kremlin has propagated the fear of their motherland being surrounded by enemies and how this message is being amplified through Russian schools, the military, the Russian news media, and the Russian Orthodox Church. Periodic references are made in the Russian media about the possible need for Russia to defend itself as it did against Hitler’s regime. A popular World War II bumper sticker reads, “We can do it again.”
The New York Times reported that in 2021 the Kremlin started a four-year $185 million program to dramatically increase patriotic education, which included plans to attract 600,000 children as young as 8 years old to become part of a uniformed Youth Army.
Another initiative to build a special bond between Russian children and the Russian army is called “Young Army.” This initiative also targets recruits from second graders to high school students; Aron’s book has many pictures of this program, as well as all the other militarized educational programs. These patriotic education programs are achieving the desired results: 170,000 young people enrolled in 2017 and 590,000 in 2019, with the goal of one million by 2020. Part of the attraction is preferential treatment in college admissions, free higher education at military colleges, and “social support” from the government. One source for recruiting students, according to Leon Aron, is targeting “deviant teens” and orphans between the age of 7 and 17. What is particularly heartbreaking is that many of these orphans were kidnapped from Ukraine and are now being militarized to fight against their homeland. There are also cadet classes beginning in the fifth grade in which the cadets wear black uniforms, say an oath at the beginning of the class, and participate in combat and sports exercises in the afternoon.
In August 2023, Putin’s leadership passed a law that introduced a new course in schools entitled “Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Homeland.” The course includes trips to military units, military-sport games, classes on drones, and learning how to use live ammunition for high school students.
In addition to building patriotic parks in numerous Russian cities, Victory Day celebrations commemorating the defeat of the Nazis in 1945 have recently resembled a “quasi-religious cult.” This is highlighted by the construction of the Main Cathedral of the Armed Forces, which was completed in 2020 at the reported cost of over $90 million. The cathedral is the world’s third-tallest Orthodox Church, with steps cast from melted-down Nazi weapons, a bell tower 75 meters high to mark the 75 years since the end of the war, and mosaics that portray Biblical scenes and Red Army victories.
Leon Aron’s book contains 65 colored photos – a rarity in serious scholarly texts – that make the visual case for the seriousness of what is happening in Putin’s Russia. You can also find photos of these militarized youth programs in Russia using Google Images or other internet sources; the images of young kids loading rifles and throwing grenades are painful to see, but they drive home the scope and gravity of what is happening to Russia’s youth.
Leon Aron makes this observation near the end of his book: “A professional illness of long-reigning authoritarians, hubris is almost always buttressed by the conviction of the moral faultlessness of one’s choices. Like most long-reigning autocrats, Putin was possessed of the belief in his unerring knowledge of what was best for his people and of the trust in their ultimate approval and gratitude.” Since his recent re-elections, Putin has shifted his regime’s legitimacy from economic progress and increased personal incomes to militarized patriotism. He now sees himself as a victorious defender of Russia against its principal enemy, the West - especially the United States.
As one Ukrainian leader of a volunteer force in Kharkiv stressed, “If Putin is bargaining and doesn’t get what he wants, he must invade. If he retreats without invading, his political career will be over. His entire career is built on conflict.” As his grip on power grows, Putin sees his mission to be rebuilding “historical Russia,” which means that any part of the former Russian Empire is a potential target, especially because he sees the West as weakening and splintering. Putin will relentlessly pursue this goal until he is stopped, and the leaders of Ukraine’s allies in NATO need to recognize this, along with the U.S. Congressional leadership in both political parties.
Militarizing Russia’s youth clearly indicates that Putin and his National Security Council advisors are preparing for the “next war,” a long war. Leon Aron is right: “the built-in advantage of every authoritarian aggressor enjoys over a bourgeois democracy: the West wants peace, while Putin needs victory (war).” Unless Russian armed forces are defeated in Ukraine, Russia under Putin, and probably under his successors, will remain committed to the rebuilding and strengthening of Russia’s colonial empire.