“To see Putin live is something”
Russians endure biting cold to attend a patriotic concert in the support of “special operation” in Ukraine, that they prefer not to talk about.
A day after Russian president Vladimir Putin delivered his nearly two hours long speech before members of parliament, government leaders and other dignities, in which he blamed the West for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, he appeared on the stage in Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium — to address common Russians.
Over 200,000 people poured into one of Europe’s largest stadiums for the patriotic rally commemorating Fatherland Defenders Day celebrated in Russia on February 23 — one the eve of the first anniversary of what Russia calls “a special military operation”.
“I am so excited to see so many celebrities in one place, and to see Vladimir Putin live is something,” Diana, a medical college student said as we walked in a tight crowd towards the stadium where we would have to stay for hours in a biting cold.
The temperature dropped to 18 degrees below zero that day, and people dressed extra warm. Some have prepared even better, their breath filled with vodka odor suggested.
People were moving towards the venue in groups. Students, government sector employees, members of political parties, and various patriotic movements were mandated to attend. Some reached the venue in specially arranged buses, others — by public transport. The attendance was checked by supervisors.
A group of students was discussing the concert playlist when I approached them. “We are happy to be invited. I have never seen Vladimir Putin, and I love Grigory Leps [famous pop singer — CTTF],” Arina, one of the students, said. She, however, refused to comment on the leitmotif of the concert. “I am not going to say anything about the “special operation”. Everyone has their own opinion. But we help refugee children, we send humanitarian help to Donbass,” she uttered.
Elena, a young lady in a pink ski suit, claimed she came to Luzhniki on her own. She got her entry via a social media group where people were promised to get 500 rubles ($6.5) for attending. They were also instructed not to talk to the press or comment on the “special operation”.
“In September, I went to the Red Square concert [organized on the occasion of annexing four regions of Ukraine into the Russian Federation — CTTF], but I couldn’t get in. This time I made sure I have a ticket,” she said. “The funniest part is that my friend, who is 57, really wanted to attend because he is a patriot. But he didn’t get a ticket. They denied looking at his date of birth — he is too old, and they need young and beautiful people to be shown on TV,” Elena added.
People were asked to assemble by 11 am, despite the concert being scheduled at 2 pm — a common practice for events in which Vladimir Putin takes part. To warm people up, multiple field kitchens offering hot tea and buckwheat meals were set up around the venue. Inside the stadium, every seat would have a blanket, a cushion and a Russian flag. As the concert was over, 5 hours later, most of the attendees made sure they left with a couple of extra blankets and cushions.
“It was mandatory for us to come, otherwise they would fire you, or withhold the bonus,” a woman in her 50s working with a municipal maintenance company said as we chatted, striking our frozen feet to a heater in a public toilet. The toilets were constantly crowded since noon, as they were the only heated spots in the stadium.
When asked if coming here in this cold was worth it, the woman said it is anyways “better than sitting at home”. “It is always good to attend such concerts, so many artists are on stage. They gave us a day off and we got all these cushions — we can use them when going for barbecue”, she said pointing out at a sack filled with a few cushions.
On the stadium stands, people heartily waved Russian flags, dancing to the music to keep themselves warm. But the crowd’s reaction to “special operation” remarks made by the anchors seemed rather cool. People listened patiently to war veterans recovering from their injuries, acting officers and relatives of the military who died in the fighting and civilians killed by the shelling in the streets of Donetsk, but their faces hardly expressed any empathy.
The crowd didn’t seem to be moved even when an army officer who is believed to have saved more than 300 children in Mariupol, evacuating them amidst intense city fighting, hugged some of these children on stage. As if thousands pf soldiers and mobilized civilians loosing their lives on the frontline, hundreds of destroyed cities and villages, and millions of refugees, were still a far distant reality for the Luzhniki crowd.
Only when the anchor announced Oleg Gazmanov, one of Russia's most famous pop singers, getting into the stage, people jumped out of their seats in excitement. Gazmanov’s popular song “Oficery” [Officers] written after the 1991 August coup and mentioning those who fought in Afghanistan, resonated with people’s hearts, unlike yet unfamiliar songs about Donbass and its sacred fight played before.
One of these new songs, however, managed to flare up the freezing crowd. Labeled as the unofficial anthem of the “special operation”, the song called “Three hundred and thirty-three” was written by retired special forces officer Alexander Vanyushkin from Tambov to “lift up the spirits of the troops” fighting in Ukraine.
“Three hundred and thirty-three — from night to dawn
From dawn to dusk — three hundred and thirty-three”…
As the crowd jumped frantically to the energetic tune glorifying a command to fire missiles, used by the Russian army, I asked a few people around if they had any idea of what “three hundred and thirty-three” stood for. They only shrugged their shoulders.
“The music is cheerful and I am freezing, so I dance. What does it mean anyways?” a red-haired lady wearing bright red lipstick asked me, shouting over the lowd music.
“Three hundred and thirty-three is a command used by our military to fire rockets… And rockets, you know, meant to kill” I answered.
“This is sad, the war is sad,” she responded.
When asked what her opinion of the “special operation” was, she said her mother is from Ukraine-controlled Donbass. She managed to move to Russia when the war started. “I still have my grandfather and uncles there, and they are supporting Russia. They are waiting for the day when the fighting will be over. Of course everyone hoped they could resolve this peacefully, without bloodshed, but it seems it was not possible,” she said.
At his address to the nation the day before, Vladimir Putin emphasized the war was about the very existence of Russia and blamed the West for the ongoing hostilities.
“Behind our backs, a very different plan was being hatched. As we can see now, the promises of Western leaders, their assurances that they were striving for peace in Donbass turned out to be a sham and outright lies,” Putin said. “They were simply marking time, engaged in political chicanery, turning a blind eye to the Kyiv regime’s political assassinations and reprisals against undesirable people, their mistreatment of believers”.
“Let me reiterate that they were the ones who started this war, while we used force and are using it to stop the war,” Putin claimed.
The Russian society has been portrayed as largely supporting the “special operation” in Ukraine since its beginning with international media citing data from a state-owned polling center VCIOM. In its latest assessment published in January, the polling company said 68% support the special operation, which is bigger than in November 2022 (65%), but smaller than in March 2022 (73%). The number of people who do not support the “special operation” changed from a stable 18% in the first six months of the war to 25 % in November 2022 and dropped to 20% in January this year. The number of people who are “unsure” has slightly increased since the beginning of the conflict (12% as of January).
Polling conducted by Levada center, an independent research company labeled as “foreign agent” by the Russian government last year, revealed that the overall number of people supporting and opposing the “special operation” hasn’t changed much and is overall corresponding with VCIOM data, although independent pollster asks questions in a different way (“Do you support the actions of Russian military in Ukraine” rather than more neutral “Do you support the special operation” asked by VCIOM).
What matters, according to analysts, is that all these polls have to be seen in the context of censorship and draconian laws adopted in Russia right after the beginning of the invasion. Expressing dissent in any form could lead to a hard punishment, including large prison terms.
What also matters, though, is that with German tanks rolling into Ukraine yet again, very much like 80 years ago, and with US President appearing at Russia’s doorstep, in Kyiv, calling on NATO allies to pump in more weapons and “squeeze Russia’s economic lifelines,'' make the idea of Russia fighting for its own existence much more clear than that of “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine. References to the former have become rare lately.
Canceling everything Russian in the West — from Dostoevsky and Tchaikovsky, from athletes to fast-growing tech giants like Yandex— is probably something that revokes stronger feelings than the snapshots of destroyed cities and lives in the neighbouring country. Thanks to censorship, many Russians see only carefully curated snapshots.
In his surprisingly short speech at Luzhniki stadium, Vladimir Putin said: “There are people … whose choice in life is to defend the most sacred and dearest thing that we have: family and the Motherland. Today, they are doing this as part of the special military operation”.
He spoke of doctors, nurses, defense industry employees, transport workers, and even children who “stand behind” Russian servicemen “fighting heroically, courageously and bravely”. “In this sense, in our efforts to protect our interests, our people, our culture, our language and all our territories, all our people are defenders of the Fatherland. I bow low to all of you,” Putin said.
The defenders bravely stayed till the end of the concert, even after the Russian leader left the stage. “Our cause is right! The enemy will be defeated! Victory will be ours!” the anchors chanted slogans of World War II, familiar to Russians of all ages. The new war is yet to generate fresh universally-accepted slogans.