In the original version of this roundup -- the one that went out on email to subscribers -- I made a mistake in the description of the profile in Holod of Evgeny Bakalo. I described him (among other things) as a volunteer for "re-education programs for young Russians living in Russia and occupied Ukraine." I did not mean to imply that people living in occupied Ukrainian territory are Russian. I was writing too fast and failed to re-read what I wrote before publishing, for which I apologize. I have edited the text on the website to correct this mistake.
As always, thank you for the roundup full of insights and valuable links. The story about Russians informing on each other reminded me of an excellent but difficult book on this from the Stalin era: The Whisperers, by Orlando Figes (2007). It's an impressive oral history of people who lived through that time, with Figes's thoughtful summaries of each chapter. It's disheartening to read about this happening again today.
Thank you for your analysis; so incredibly informative and non-trivial. In the past few months, I have been making a valiant effort to finish “The Ascent” by Volker Ulrich on Hitler’s Germany. Reading your commentary on people informing on others, I find once again wondering what the similarities are between Germany during the 30s and 40s and Putin’s Russia. How much can we hold Russians accountable for what is happening today in Ukraine and Russia?
In the original version of this roundup -- the one that went out on email to subscribers -- I made a mistake in the description of the profile in Holod of Evgeny Bakalo. I described him (among other things) as a volunteer for "re-education programs for young Russians living in Russia and occupied Ukraine." I did not mean to imply that people living in occupied Ukrainian territory are Russian. I was writing too fast and failed to re-read what I wrote before publishing, for which I apologize. I have edited the text on the website to correct this mistake.
As always, thank you for the roundup full of insights and valuable links. The story about Russians informing on each other reminded me of an excellent but difficult book on this from the Stalin era: The Whisperers, by Orlando Figes (2007). It's an impressive oral history of people who lived through that time, with Figes's thoughtful summaries of each chapter. It's disheartening to read about this happening again today.
You are confused because there was no good data on the real Russian economy or its military spending, until now: https://aaronlee.substack.com/p/one-trillion-dollars-in-2023-how
Thank you for your analysis; so incredibly informative and non-trivial. In the past few months, I have been making a valiant effort to finish “The Ascent” by Volker Ulrich on Hitler’s Germany. Reading your commentary on people informing on others, I find once again wondering what the similarities are between Germany during the 30s and 40s and Putin’s Russia. How much can we hold Russians accountable for what is happening today in Ukraine and Russia?