July 02, 2024

Small-Town Russia and the War


Small-Town Russia and the War
The Reftinsky reservoir in the Sverdlovsk region. Vasily Iakovlev, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

It can be difficult to navigate between Russian state media claims and the varied opinions of people living across Russia, especially when it comes to Russia's war in Ukraine. There are supporters of the war who accept the Kremlin narratives, and there are oppositionists who put themselves in harm's way to protest the war, who are the people in between?

In 2022, researchers in a sociology laboratory began collecting data from individual citizens in distinct regions to get a better overview of Russians' perspective on the war. Their findings were published on Meduza. 

The sociologists conducted interviews and observed conversations in public spaces, talking to cab drivers, salespeople, bartenders, and manicurists, among many others. In one town in the Sverdlovsk region, population 12,000, the researchers found that most signs of support for the war have disappeared: bumper stickers, posters for mobilization, and even public conversations among residents. 

Under the surface, however, the war had touched the lives of most Cheryomushkino citizens. Almost everyone the researchers interviewed was personally acquainted with someone who had gone to the front, and many knew someone who had died.

Their conclusion? While many townspeople were dismayed by the numbers of deaths and the forced conscription of soldiers, they still believe the Kremlin regarding the necessity and inevitability of the invasion. 

You Might Also Like

A New Record of Complaints
  • June 17, 2024

A New Record of Complaints

Russians affected by “natural changes” wrote a record number of complaints to the president.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955