Posted on 07/09/2025 1:25:18 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Americans all too often presume that everyone else aspires to live and think as we do. Others must share our values, if only in secret, or at least be eager to learn them. This is a dangerous attitude to take with any nation or culture, but perhaps especially so with Russians—and never more so than when the topic is war.
As Gregory Carleton observes in his superb 2017 study Russia: The Story of War, war is an indispensable part of how Russians see the world and their place in it. The extent to which World War II and all previous wars extending back a thousand years define Russian national identity is truly astonishing...
Reminders of war are everywhere in Russia. Newlyweds ritually place flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow. I don’t know any American who can identify the day May 9, the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender, but in Russia it is the most important holiday of the year, consecrated by the Russian Orthodox Church...which, even more than Russian Orthodox holidays, unites Russians of all social classes, believers and atheists alike
Wars figure in American history, of course, but they do not define what it is to be an American. (A partial exception may once have been the Civil War in the imagination of some Southerners.)
To appreciate the Russian perspective, we should consider some basic historical facts. Americans were profoundly shocked by our loss of more than 50,000 soldiers in the Vietnam War; in World War II, the toll was approximately 450,000.
Now contrast that with historical memory in Russia. It is impossible to know the Soviet death toll from 1941 to 1945, but it was surely greater than 20 million...Only 3 percent of Russian men born between 1923 and 1924 survived the war...
(Excerpt) Read more at commentary.org ...
I know a few Russians. Yes, Russians who moved to Poland or the west years ago so not completely representative.
But they don’t worship war.
What is a Russian trait is acceptance of whatever crap the lords above shove down on you
When they have to live with the krauts sand all the others that don’t like them one can see why they’re so paranoid. With their resources would they be rich?
This is an ironic article. The country with the most wars in modern times is the US.
Perhaps as much as US Citizens do, but there’s no way they could worship it more.
https://www.commentary.org/articles/gary-morson/russians-worship-war/
Full article, definitely goes beyond “modern times” and it’s not so much about the “amount” of war, but the existential nature of it all...whereas you can argue US’s wars have been more...elective, rather than existential...
But the “revolution” of 1917 in Russia was not truly a revolution.
It was an insurgency orchestrated and funded by the globalist bankers.
Russia is not the Soviets. The Russia of today is free from the infiltrators. They are God-fearing traditionalists like American patriots.
But the same globalist bankers continue to fabricate propaganda about Russia, to prevent the American people from realizing Russia is our ally and the globalists our true enemy.
Russians worship war as long as the Chechens, Buryats, Dagestanis, Tuvans, Kalmyks and Norks are doing all the fighting for them.
“war is an indispensable part of how Russians see the world and their place in it”
The very same applies to to US.
And to all of the nations of Europe, Asia and Africa.
Where does this garbage come from?
Russia has been invaded numerous times over the centuries, but never conquered.
Successfully repelling invaders does not translate into “loving war.”
Russia was conquered by the Mongols.
Do we?
Russia haters gonna hate.
War kills the fertile men. We need fertile men with the population decline
That proves they worship war. 🤡
Will the Russians be the Klingons in two centuries ?
Gary Saul Morson is a Russophile, and tenured professor whose entire life’s mission has been to expose the treasures of Russian Literature to the current generations of Americans.
As a percentage of territory taken in a war and permanently held until it was ripped from the victor’s hands, I wonder how the US fares historically?
What, with all of our conquered lands and such...
Since WWII, the USA has fought or meddled in more wars than the Russians, and none of them have been in our backyard.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.