Peace Lesson And Russian Bullshit - September 1st 2023

September 1st 2023

Yuriy reflects on the stark contrast between Soviet-era peace lessons and Russia's current militaristic indoctrination, highlighting the disturbing shift from valuing peace to celebrating aggressive war. He ponders the psychological complexities behind a nation that once cherished peace now advocating for destructive conflict, emphasizing the enduring resilience of Ukraine in the face of ongoing aggression.

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TRANSCRIPT: (Podbean app users can enjoy closed captions)

 Today is September 1st 

Since Soviet Times the academic year in schools begins on this day, and the first lesson of first school day was always the so-called peace lesson I studied in an ordinary Soviet school and I remember it very well. The teacher talked about the fact that there is nothing more valuable in the world when peace show it Some slides with terrible footage of the Second World War. Fields littered with human bodies, prisoners of concentration camps after torture, destroyed cities. Sometimes veterans of that war were brought to class, gray-haired men in uniform with decorations all over their chests. These man talked about how terrible it is in the war, how painful is to lose loved ones killed. They said that all the problems in the world are nonsense compared to the war. "For there to be no war" veterans, a teacher, and where inscriptions in textbooks told us. 

But all this was pure bullshit. A cheap show about a peace loving government that supposedly valued peace, but at the same time bombed Afghanistan, killed thousands of people, armed terrorists all over the world, from Angola to Nicaragua, built more and more new tanks, missiles, and submarines. It was a dirty double-edged Manichaeism: in words, the Soviet government valued peace as the main treasure in the world, but in reality, it constantly fought, occupied other countries, killed people and lied at every step. 

Peace lessons are no longer held in Russia. Do you know how we start the new academic year? From military training. They are taught to disassemble rifles, fly drones, march in formation and they are also prepared for the fact that there is no greater happiness when dying for their country, preferably by storming Washington, Brussels, or Berlin. This is already starting to resemble North Korea with its cult of a leader that everyone dreams of dying for. But there is one big difference in North Korea, there was never a democracy. There was never freedom of speech. There was no internet and open borders. For generations, people have seen and heard nothing but calls for full devotion for the head of state. 

But it was different in Russia. There was freedom of speech and open borders, independent and very high quality journalism existed for a while, but most people did not need it. They easily gave up all this in exchange for government promises to destroy Ukraine and then try to destroy Europe and the USA in the same way. And you know what? All this done by the same people who for years listened to the fact that there is nothing more valuable than peace, that war is the worst thing in the world, that people should negotiate and seek ways of understanding and not take up arms.

This is such a complex task for psychologists to understand and to explain to the world how millions of people, an entire nation that has been indoctrinated for decades to cherish peace, now celebrate war. And not a justifiable, liberating war, but a deceitful aggressive war aimed at the destruction of neighbors. This war has been ongoing for over a year and a half now. Russians have killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians and sent to hell hordes of soldiers for a goal that has proven to be utterly elusive. They will never conquer Ukraine. They will never storm Washington or take Berlin. Yet they will continue to try to achieve all of this. We will persist for several more years. The crucial thing is for us to endure even longer.