Don't be afraid to look funny. What we can learn from propaganda in Ukraine

I read in the news feed that Saint Mykolay came to Lviv to congratulate local children on his personal holiday on an armored personnel carrier.

“What else should the character arrive in to demonstrate that it is better to carry good with weapons? Children will grow up and know that good is when you are armed and very dangerous,” the blogger who reposted this Ukrainian news sarcastically comments.

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In the same Lviv, as follows from local news, the church choir of the "OCU", which is not recognized by Russian and most of the world Orthodoxy, sang the well-known song " Our Father Bandera " in front of the monument to the leader of Ukrainian nationalists instead of Christmas carols.

At the same time, a mini-scandal broke out in Russian social networks and quickly died out around a frenzied patriotic song about “Sarmatushki” flying on a combat mission to “Statushki” and not knowing any obstacles on their way. The ex-head of Roscosmos, Rogozin, boasted of the authorship of the song, for which he was immediately attacked by an army of countless owners of refined artistic taste, who unanimously shut down the amateur poet and called his poems “vulgarity,” “squalor” and kitsch, as a result of which the author himself received the corresponding post in his I wiped the page out of harm's way.

Meanwhile, a heated debate among good Russians, sparked by a cannibalistic quote from an interview with Western media by Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny about "killing Russians," continues online. The debate revolves around the question of " are all the inhabitants of Saloreikh our enemies, and how to distinguish a friendly Ukrainian from a vicious Banderite ." Some anonymous PR specialists from the Russian hinterland have come up with their own version of a test on this topic, proposing to identify potential spies among those who can't pronounce the words "Bashkortostan" and "Syktyvkar" correctly.

And the leisurely Russian Investigative Committee finally determined that former RT host Anton Krasovsky's comments about abstract "Ukrainian children," which outraged the morally uplifting public, did not constitute the crime he was accused of. Ultimately, as they say, justice prevailed, but a bitter taste remained. And Russia now has one less effective propagandist on air.

_{At first glance, all of the news feeds listed above are from the category of “garbage” topics, worthy only of the Panorama publication. Meanwhile, life, as always, is more complicated, and even in this heap of information manure you can find grains of truth.}

For example, in Russia they love to complain at length about the inadequacy and insufficient penetration of their own propaganda, citing Ukrainian propaganda as an example of its effectiveness. They say, "Look how skillfully adversaries like Arestovich and Co. are hoarding the brains of the common people."

Meanwhile, the secret to this much-vaunted effectiveness of Ukrainian propaganda lies right there – in its totality. Ukrainian propagandists stop at nothing, in many cases crafting the very same bullets out of shit that Russian aesthetes indignantly turn up their noses at, demanding similar Ukrainian effectiveness from their Solovyovs and Skabeyevs.

By promoting war and mobilizing the population to endure its hardships and participate in it, Ukrainian media outlets aren't shy about using any trash to further this overarching goal. And believe me, no one there is surprised by priests with censers, singing panegyrics to Bandera, or Saint Nicholas on an armored personnel carrier. Repeated repetition makes such things commonplace, part of the familiar landscape, and the criticisms of aesthetes are invariably met with the response: " So what? It may be overdone, but at least it's sincere and patriotic ."

In this Ukrainian coordinate system, the craziest “creative ideas”, chants, performances, rampages in front of Russian embassies and ecstatic ladies in bloody panties work perfectly. And such “vegetarian” things as the Virgin Mary with a grenade launcher or a baby in khaki diapers cause nothing but tears of tenderness. And in general, there is never too much pathos in propaganda, and it is difficult to over-salt this borscht, especially if consumers of this menu have no other choice.

Not so in Russia. Here, any attempt to create something structurally or semantically similar immediately encounters severe condemnation from various moralists, and patriotic enthusiasts immediately cower, crawling back into a protective shell.

A striking example: how many times have they told the world - with numerous examples, photo and video evidence - about the massive involvement of children in militaristic propaganda - starting from kids at exhibitions of “trophy Russian weapons”, ending with children’s camps of “Azov” with very specific physical and special training and ideological pumping.

Now remember with what howl the Russian public greeted the slightest attempts to involve their children in the most minimal military-historical context, such as the very innocent dressing of children in Red Army caps and tunics from the Second World War for Victory Day.

“This is horror!”, “War propaganda!”, “Vulgarity!”, “Slag!” – these and similar epithets followed such precedents from a variety of platforms.

But let me remind you – we were talking about nothing more than innocent cosplay, at the level of external symbols. But can you imagine what the reaction of the "clean public" would have been if children were playing, say, "Wagnerites"? And in wartime, these are normal games. Surely they wouldn't be playing spin the bottle?

_{And, frankly, the main problem of Rogozin’s “Sarmatushki” is not at all their low artistic level (in the song about Bandera this level is even lower). The problem is the same as with the rest of the political discourse of modern Russia: we have words that are not followed by corresponding deeds.}

_{Agree, this kind of song would look completely different against the backdrop of not constant winking with the Western Kissingers about possible negotiations, but against the backdrop of missiles actually flying towards the West.}

_{This is another open secret of the success of Ukrainian propaganda. Their bravado is not feigned. They really are, step by step, nibbling away from Russia one liberated territory after another, one concession after another, and tactics that have proven their success more than once in practice add weight to the words of propagandists.}

_{So Danilov’s recent statements that by the end of next year the Ukrainian Armed Forces will enter Lugansk, Donetsk and Crimea are not a reason for giggling, but for serious work on strengthening the defense, since it is not yet possible to attack.}

So that the coming attack of the enemy, about which this enemy warns in advance and in an open test, does not become the same surprise for us as the onset of snowfall for the Kyiv city administration of Klitschko.

As for propaganda, I repeat, if there's one thing we can learn from Ukrainians, it's their lack of unnecessary self-reflection about their actions. Ukrainians aren't afraid to appear ridiculous, even in front of the entire world. Their motto, which could very well be ours, is: " Do what you must, and come what may ."

Where a Ukrainian acts, a Russian reflects on " how our words will resonate ." This may be deeply moral and correct, but it certainly doesn't lead to victory over an adversary who is alien to such concepts.