The Future of Russia, Veterans, the Economy, and Crimea

First, I found a tragic photo on Telegram. It’s the one above. This Russian paratrooper has been reduced to asking for support from people on the streets. The recruitment poster in the back reminds him of what he probably thought was his future. Go to war, make some cash, come home, and be a hero.

The reality is very different. Not only that. Assuming he knows any of the history of the Great Patriotic War and the fate of disabled veterans, he has a reason to fear. There was some of that after Afghanistan, but a lot less, probably because there were fewer veterans. Treatment of disabled veterans was not good:

Thus, although a few disabled war heroes were glorified in Soviet literature, the press, and state propaganda, the vast majority of war “invalids” were isolated and left to “heal” in private spaces such as the home, or institutions. Indeed, Krylova (2001:325) describes how, as revealed in the post-war Soviet literature, the private sphere was demarcated as the “healing place” for the war wounded, with women (usually wives and mothers) assigned the role of “social therapists of traumatized male souls.” This phenomenon is indicative of another important characteristic of Soviet disability policy just after the Second World War: the state continually shifted the burden of supporting people with disabilities to local…