“If tomorrow is a war, if tomorrow is a campaign,

be ready for the campaign today! "

- sang in the 1930s by millions. That time in the USSR passed under the sign of war as something that could really break out right tomorrow. And why not be afraid - after all, they do not sing about the terrible! But you need to prepare: shoot, dig, run across, put on a gas mask, drive a tank.

“And if a hardened enemy climbs up to us,

he will be beaten everywhere and everywhere,

when the drivers press the starters ... "

- the artist Nikolai Kryuchkov sang to the accordion in Tractor Drivers (1939).

A - audience:

“... and through the forests, along the hills, through the water,

thundering fire, sparkling with the brilliance of steel ... ".

And then - about Comrade Stalin and the harsh hour of the war. Which, of course, will come. And not if, but when. And he came. But I'm not talking about the fact that in 1941 the readiness for a campaign and victory "on the enemy's land with little blood, a mighty blow" did not happen. And that if the authorities think that there is public opinion in the country, then they believe that it should be prepared for a big - not hybrid - war and victims that cannot be hidden.

In the 1930s, this was done in Germany - “setting the orchestra (as the Nazi bosses called their propaganda machine) to the music of war,” using two strong emotional motivators. The first is a complex of defeat in the First World War. The second is the Soviet threat. Historians write how in the 1930s, preparing an attack to the east, the propaganda instilled in the Germans a fierce fear of the "advance of the Reds to the West."

And Stalin's propaganda did not name the enemy precisely. She came out with a kind of vaguely indistinct, conventionally bourgeois. It is he who is smashed by "infantry, battleships and dashing carts" in the film "If there is war tomorrow."

And today the word "war" is heard more and more in the information space, gradually creeping into everyday life.

Since 2014, I don’t remember such a close discussion of a possible war. However, then the events in Crimea, Donbass, Syria and Iraq were discussed either as special operations or as insurgent and counter-insurgency actions. And now they are talking about "war". First of all - the media, broadcasting the words of politicians, officials and experts. Is it that war as an opportunity is systematically introduced into everyday life? As with advice?

Those who grew up and were adults in the USSR in the 1960s-1980s remember how they taught in basic military training and civil defense classes: run to a shelter in case of an atomic strike. And did not have time - away from high-rise buildings and fall with your feet to the explosion. As from morning to night, from all the irons and burners, not to mention the radio and TV, they denounced the aggressive West and the Chinese threat. And now they talk about China in connection with the war. But already about his attack on Taiwan and "trade battles" with the United States. And they talk about relations with the West in a style hardly distinguishable from the Soviet one. And the use of the words "partners" and "comrades" only underlines the sarcasm.

From the fashionable formula "Yalta 2.0" emanates from the smoke of conflagrations, then from the fierce frost. Let us recall the result of which the Yalta agreements were. And the prologue of what they have become. Against the background of the memory of the tragedy of World War II and the nightmare of the Cold War, words about a new division of spheres of influence sound wild. Perhaps that is why Western politicians, when discussing relations with Russia, are increasingly repeating the "new security strategy" refrain. And they are clearly not afraid of the militant rhetoric and the brilliance of steel. Well, why is he?

Why give Western experts a reason to declare, and Russian ones - to admit: yes, part of the heavy weapons of the 41st Army, which was deployed in the spring from Novosibirsk to the Ukrainian border, remained there, and did not leave for Siberia after the West-2021 strategic exercises. And the equipment of the 1st Guards Tank Army is in the Yelnya area, in the Kursk and Bryansk regions - at the same border. And the 1st and 2nd corps of the "people's militia" of the DPR / LPR, "ready to repulse the Armed Forces of Ukraine," are operatively subordinate to the headquarters of the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army in Novocherkassk, Russia.

And this is not the case when weapons such as tanks and words are racing in different worlds. The media is driving them into one information space. So much so that it is no longer a savvy TV viewer and newspaper reader, but even a simple writer knows that it is not for nothing that experts call this "the war of mutual accusations." After all, she too is a war.

Why go from talking about a fearless "information counteroffensive to the West" to talk about a new Cuban missile crisis? TASS quotes Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov: “It can come to this completely. If the comrades from the other side do not understand, and everything will continue as it is, we may well suddenly wake up and see ourselves in something similar. "

“A real, not imaginary, threat of war,” according to Dmitry Suslov, Deputy Director of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the Higher School of Economics, is the first of two conditions that induce great powers to respect each other's interests. The second is the interest "in partnership and the desire to strengthen interaction." Which is not.

Well, let's say ... A thin world is better than a good fight. But the conclusion is surprising: "In this situation, the analogy with the Cuban missile crisis is absolutely legitimate."

I do not write about the crisis and horror that the world experienced then - information about it is readily available. I will only remind you of the Soviet yard song of that time:

"An intercontinental rocket,Fly to America, fly!

You are ballistic distant -

Eh, mother baby!

It's time to stop the controversy.

And send her to heaven ... ".

Etc.

Whether the people gave birth to these lines or some other environment - I don't know. But they reflect the Soviet people's vision of the world and their place in it. And now not everyone sees that it is time to overcome the illusions of that time, discarding the chimeras of the "historical enemy" and the "conflict of systems." But, apparently, many people like to think of themselves and the Russian Federation in the model of the USSR.

So after all, besides openly military and courtyard songs, there were others. And they also rang on the radio. Like:

“To the sunny world - yes! Yes!! Yes!!!

Nuclear explosion - no! No!! No!!!".

There are no such songs either. There is "and in the open field the system" Grad "". But sometimes I hear Shevchuk as well - “the war brought us together in hell”. And very often - about love. And I remember the song of David Tukhmanov “Love is a child of the planet, press your cheek to me; the whole world is our home! " And such songs were also sung in the USSR. And he is no longer there. And it won't.

But is normalization possible? Can rhetorical and practical escalation be interrupted? Without prejudice - and even with it - for other interests or pride, but for the benefit of the world.

Is there no reason for the question? Isn't it alarming when experts like Sergei Karaganov in Russia in Global Affairs, along with others, “admit the obvious - a new cold war is unfolding. With amendments to the new situation. " And the State Duma deputies are weighing: can the West "win the conventional war against Russia?" And they ask: "Is there really a war tomorrow? .." And, as in the old song, they conjure: "Our nuclear weapons and other things will be enough." But nuclear weapons are no longer about conventional war.

Is it really calm at heart when RIA Novosti, referring to a Croatian observer, writes that in Moscow "Europe was warned about war if the West violates Putin's" red line ". Well, yes. In a country - a member of the EU and NATO, it is free to talk about these topics.

And is it really easy on the heart when the responsible persons actively process the public, signaling to partners: we are! Let's agree! But no - so at least notice, talk to us. And then we the jester knows what we can do.

A prisoner of similar logic, Nikita Khrushchev deployed missiles in Cuba, organizing the Cuban Missile Crisis. And then he drove them back.

Then - in the 1950s and 1960s - a powerful rescue campaign from a Soviet nuclear strike was underway in the United States: bomb shelters were being sold with might and main. There were many private houses, and the frightened householders briskly bought bunkers, water and air purification systems, and canned food. In the 1990s, director Hugh Wilson made a movie about this. There, a guy who was born in a comfortable basement, years later goes upstairs and falls in love with a girl - an emigrant from the "Eastern Bloc" - a former enemy. But he also does not think that by creating and selling the image of this enemy forty years earlier, many politicians and businessmen made great money.

And who said that the same politicians and businessmen do not earn now? Selling your wares to a chorus of talk show propagandists for money and rating points. When ratings fall, it is known that a storm covers the sky with darkness and the air smells like a thunderstorm. But this smell is not for those who care about their home, wages, health and well-being of their families and children. But caring is a kind, creative emotion. And fear is heavy, destructive. And it becomes sharper when out of nowhere again is heard: "Do you hear - the thundering of boots"? So why scare them again with songs of war?

The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.

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