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It's important to remember that with the Internet, information about the war is much harder to suppress. There's also a big difference in the state terror apparatus available to Stalin compared to Putin. These facts combine to imply that Putin must pay sensitive attention to public opinion, even as he seeks to manipulate it.
Another factor mitigating against mass levees of the type you're positing from WWII is that Russia's economy is slumping and they can't afford to take too many employees off production lines. Remember, by 1944 USSR was receiving great amounts of Lend-Lease, not just resources and raw materials but finished goods which would have otherwise had to have been produced in Russian factories. I can't specify how many workers this freed up for military service, but it had to be significant. Such circumstances not obtaining today, that's even less available.
For these reasons, I don't see the great levees of 1943-44 happening today. Look at the exodus the last one instigated, after all.
True. But my read of it, I cannot help but agree with most of what was written. There's a lot to be fearful of in that article.Keep in mind that politico.eu tends to lean left of center in their reporting and op-eds.
It doesn't hurt to read what they have to say, but do so with that understanding.
I've read that's why we began to see a lot of beautiful women from eastern Europe starting in the 1960s, as there weren't enough young men in 1945-50 to marry any but the best women.I recall reading that 80% of Soviet males born in 1923 were dead by the end of the war (a truly harrowing figure...). No way to hide that sort of statistic these days. Not to mention that the Soviret Union was drafting from all the republics, not just the Russian Republic