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Samizdata quote of the day “Young men are also a production resource – a productive resource that is used to wage war, but Russia’s youth have had it with Putin’s regime and the collapse of the economy and the prospect for going to war and dying in Ukraine is causing young Russian to flee the country. It is said that more than 25,000 Russians have already left for Georgia since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The exodus of young Russian in fact started more than a decade ago, but this process is now accelerating dramatically. Polls done even before the war on Ukraine have again and again shown that more than half of the Russian population would like to emigrate. That number is now skyrocketing – particularly among the young. The Putin’s regime can hardly accept that much longer – and therefore it is only a matter of time before a “Russian wall” is erected – and in the same way as with the Berlin Wall, it is not about keeping enemies out, but about keeping the population confined.”
– Lars Christensen, economist based in Denmark.
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If Lars is correct about what Putin will have to do to his economy to stay in power, and if he does stay in power, then that eastern example of what socialism looks like in practice, that we had till 1990 (and for want of which the western chattering class has degraded itself – and us – since) will soon be back – complete with “Berlin Wall” style restrictions on voting with your feet.
This time, however, expect the usual suspects to get their claim that “It isn’t real socialism” in early. Putin, intentionally and otherwise, may help them. He’ll need an ideology for this but I doubt even he will attempt a resurrection of Marx; a form of national socialism, heavy on the nationalism in words and the socialism in deeds, would seem the only way he can go.
I would like to close by saying that this, of course, means Putin will not last long – but like Lars, I recognise I am far from knowing what I’d need to, to call that either way. History offers inspiring examples, and also uninspiring ones – in the west as well as the east.
What would happen if stress caused Putin to have a heart attack, and die? Who would be in command, and would he/she be likely to stop the war?
If Putin built a wall the outcry from the western human rights brigade would not be deafening.
It’d be non-existent.
And he knows it.
Mr Putin’s hero “Stalin” (a Georgian) killed millions of Russians – but he also banned abortion, the Soviet Union had been the first country in the world to legalise it. “Stalin” reasoned that he could kill millions of Russians – as long as millions more were being born.
But Mr Putin has not done this (abortion remains legal in Russia – as it has been since 1955) – Russia has a very high abortion rate.
So Mr Putin does not have lots and lots of young men to throw away – but he is throwing them away anyway.
Paul, it’s way too late for banning abortion to do Putin any good. He’ll be dead before any new Russians are old enough to fight, even if he’s willing to send them into combat as young as 12, which he probably is.
Nicholas, what will happen after Putin dies is anyone’s guess. You might want to watch the delightful comedy Death of Stalin for some clues as to how things might proceed. In any case, it’s a fun flick.
The really big demographic crisis facing Russia is the number of Russians especially younger ones who want to emmigrate.