20 Recruitment Offices Firebombed in 24 Hours

The grandmas of Russia are determined to delay the September mobilization and also get a new social contract

20 recruiting stations in 24 hours have been fired-bombed. Of those who have been caught, three of the alleged bombers are over 60 years of age. One woman is 82.

Imagine an octogenarian exiting her house with a bag of Molotov cocktails to try to prevent the continued slaughter of Russia’s men. It is a wonderful act of rebellion from a person who lived the first 50 years of her life in the Soviet Union. A woman who knew of the repression of Stalin, the oppression of Khrushchev, and then the stagnation of Brezhnev, sees the sickness and evil of the Putin regime and decides to break the monotony of what will be her final decade of life to blow up recruiting stations. She was detained and likely will be jailed for the rest of her life.

It’s amazing, though, that it is not the Soviet generation that came of age at the end of the collapsing empire but the ones that grew up at the tail end of Stalin and through the Brezhnev years, the ones who have a small sense of what is right and what is wrong and also a recollection of the social contract between the people and their government who are finally fighting back.

Another pensioner, aged 69, was caught attempting to set fire to a different Moscow military commissariat. Law enforcement found five bottles of flammable liquid in his possession. Like the previous case, the suspect also refused to cooperate with the investigation (Russians Rise Up).

The youth of Russia protested and there were even some firebombings but nothing sustainable. The protests ended because the threat of punishment was severe and the fear of losing a “not-so-bad life” was too real. The mood has been and continues to be, “Why should I go to jail while everyone else is hanging out?”

It sort of makes sense and it also speaks to the success of the Russian propaganda. While maybe many don’t agree with what’s going on, the Kremlin’s narrative has been so effective at instilling doubt in the criminality of its war that anyone born since 1970 struggles to fully commit to protesting.

As Russians await the new mobilization, they do nothing but wait. Seeking to combat personnel shortages in the army, Russia is raising the age for men who can be conscripted.

Last week, Putin signed into law legislation that raises the maximum age for male conscription from 27 to 30 years old.

One year of military service was previously required by Russian men ages 18 to 27 with conscriptions held twice a year. But starting in 2024, that call-up category will be extended by three years, significantly broadening the pool of young men who are now eligible for Russia’s one year of compulsory service (Russia Is Raising Its Conscription Age).

It has also increased the age to 70 for retired officers who can be conscripted. Russia has lost a tremendous amount of experienced officers and this is creating command problems at the front. In short, pretty much all men in Russia can be sent to Ukraine to die.

The grandmas don’t agree with this abuse of power and they are doing something about it.

Putin’s social contract

It has been the generation that grew up with a powerful social contract from the Kremlin that is stating in a clear voice: This is wrong. We are citizens of the Russian Federation and just like you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, we grew up in the Soviet Union. We didn’t tolerate the lies then and we won’t tolerate them now. This is the generation that protested Afghanistan and eventually came out in support of Boris Yeltsin. They are not swayed by TikTok, toasters and Crocs.

The social contract unofficially formulated in the post-Stalin era was as follows:

A tacit agreement between the post-Stalin regime and the working class whereby the state provided economic and social security in return for the workers’ political compliance (The Soviet Social Contract).

Despite an initial reluctance to accept the reforms that Mikhail Gorbachev sought to enact, the view was that the only ones going to suffer would be the masses and not the political elite when the elite tried to overthrow the system in August of 1991, that contract was abandoned once and for all — but it didn’t mean that a replacement was not sought. Not until Putin came along and started spending some of the gas and oil revenues on rebuilding parts of the country did that generation feel as if a legitimate social contract had been put back in place.

I can tell you that from 2002 to 2012, a lot of positive changes happened in the economic sphere. All Russians were suddenly able to get mortgages and buy their own apartments. IKEA was the favorite place to go on the weekends and going to parties in new apartments was as common as Fridays. While Russians were catching up and getting comfortable, Putin was doing whatever he wanted.

It is now the generation with the know-how that is fighting back. They have the experience in recognizing a broken contract and then fighting the powers that be to either get a new contract or a new government.

In yet another incident, an 18-year-old saleswoman from a children’s store in Ufa attempted to set fire to a military commissariat in Ishimbay. She poured flammable liquid onto the porch, ignited it, and promptly fled the scene (The Soviet Social Contract).

This young woman may have lost a friend or was fearful that her boyfriend would be sent off and so she acted. She took her example from a generation that right now might be Russia’s best chance at finally finding its voice and fighting back against Putin’s fascist regime.

I am not holding my breath for such a development simply because I hear too many stories of too many people who I used to think were normal admitting that the war is bad but that NATO left Putin no choice. It is this mood that prevails in Russia today. The “youth” who think this, Russian born between 1970 and 2000, are the post-Soviet generation and they really happen to be weak and useless when you get right down to it — it is a very selfish cohort. They either accepted it or left. Not many are fighting back.

All we can do now is cheer on the babushki (grandmas).