Briefing | For the fatherland

How Putin is reshaping Russia to keep his war-machine running

He is creating a class of wealthy bureaucrats, who are the war’s biggest supporters

Image: Carl Godfrey/Shutterstock

WAR AND sanctions notwithstanding, in early November, the renovated Soviet-era “Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy” re-opened in Moscow. The original, inaugurated in 1939 just weeks before Germany and Russia invaded Poland, papered over the famine and terror of the preceding years. Instead, displays extolled the wonders of Soviet science and the virtues of collectivisation; a special ice-cream hall doled out treats to the masses and a 25-metre statue of Stalin gazed down munificently. Millions died in the dictator’s “great break” with the past, and Russia’s economy and society were completely reshaped, but it was all depicted as unadulterated progress.

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This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “For the fatherland”

From the December 2nd 2023 edition

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