Phases of Habituation
Russia’s War in Public Opinion
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In opinion polls, a large majority of people in Russia have expressed approval of the war that their country has been waging against Ukraine since February 2022. This reflects a totalitarian consensus that has been produced by propaganda over more than two decades. The total control of information as well as massively intensified repression lead people to adopt the ideological formulas and phrases that state television feed them. Those who have access to other sources of information, especially younger people in big cities, are much better able to form their own opinion and to recognize the suffering that Russia’s leadership and the army it commands are inflicting on their neighbour without cause.
(Osteuropa 4-5/2022, pp. 29–43)