Since Brezhnev's times, the cult of victory as a passing banner has remained a tool for legitimizing the existing political order, mimicking and absorbing its dominant ideologies. In the 1990s, he pointed out the organic nature of the new regime in the context of Russian history, connecting its different eras and emphasizing the role that Russia played in their common historical past with Europe.

Since the Brezhnev era, the cult of victory has remained a tool for legitimising the existing political order, adapting to and absorbing its dominant ideological narratives. In the 1990s, it served to underscore the organic nature of the new regime within the context of Russian history, linking its various eras and highlighting the role Russia played in the shared historical past with Europe.

Since 2025, language policy in Russia has become part of an ideological project aimed at indoctrinating the population and promoting ‘traditional values’ and cultural isolationism.

Unlike the classic period of Putin’s authoritarianism, the current regime of “military Putinism” relies on a combination of repression and ideological propaganda. At the center of his ideological narrative is the image of a country - a “besieged fortress”, in a state of existential conflict with the “West” and remaining a stronghold of “traditional values”, the purposeful destruction of which world “liberalism” is engaged in.

Since 2025, language policy in Russia has become part of an ideological project of indoctrination of the population and the inculcation of “traditional values” and cultural isolationism.

Unlike the classic period of Putin’s authoritarianism, the current model of ‘military Putinism’ rests on a combination of repression and ideological propaganda. At the core of its narrative lies the image of the country as a ‘besieged fortress’, engaged in an existential conflict with the ‘West’ and serving as a bastion of ‘traditional values’, which global ‘liberalism’ is purportedly seeking to dismantle.

Trump’s victory in 2016 was not the anomaly, but rather Biden’s win in 2020, amid the pandemic, was, argues Ivan Kurilla, an expert on American history and Russian-American relations. This unexpected success disoriented the Democrats and prevented them from recognising the trend in Trump’s victory – a trajectory to which the electoral landscape reverted during Biden’s presidency, leading to such strong results for Trump in the current elections.

Trump’s victory in 2016 was not an accident, but rather Biden’s victory in 2020 in the middle of a pandemic, says Ivan Kurilla, an expert on American history and Russian-American relations. This success disorientated Democrats and prevented them from seeing in Trump’s victory the trend to which the electoral situation returned during Biden’s presidency and which ensured such powerful results for Trump in the current election.

Ivan Kurill - about the book "Russian Moment in World History" With a 20-year late, a small work of Marshall Poe reached the domestic reader, in which the historian effectively contrasts Russia and Europe. Without entering with the author in the polemic, the acute moments in his reasoning were dismantled by the historian Ivan Kurill. Starting from February 24, 2022, we were all in the face of the advancing barbarism, violence and lies.

The politicised version of history has become the core of the new ideology of the current Russian regime and serves as a disciplining framework for loyalty since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The initial attempts to introduce an official ideology based on Orthodoxy and traditional values took place in the mid-2010s but did not imply its compulsory nature or the forced exclusion of groups with different values.

The politicized version of history finally became the core of the new ideology of the current Russian regime and the disciplinary framework of loyalty to it after the outbreak of the war with Ukraine. The first attempts to introduce an official ideology based on Orthodoxy and traditional values ​​occurred in the mid-2010s and did not imply its obligatory nature and the forced exclusion of groups with different value systems.

The politicized version of history finally became the core of the new ideology of the current Russian regime and the disciplining frame of loyalty to it after the start of the war with Ukraine. The first attempts to introduce official ideology based on Orthodoxy and traditional values ​​fell in the mid-2010s and did not imply its obligation and forced exclusion of groups with other value-based attitudes.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia began to systematically destroy monuments to victims of political repression. It is known about the demolition of at least 11 memorials dedicated to the memory of repressed Poles and Lithuanians; Monuments to foreign soldiers who died on the territory of the USSR are also being demolished.

Since the onset of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has embarked on a systematic campaign to dismantle monuments dedicated to the victims of political repression. Reports indicate that at least 11 memorial sites honouring repressed Poles and Lithuanians have been demolished, along with monuments to foreign soldiers who perished within the territory of the former USSR.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian system of state education has been engulfed in a frenzy of militarism and patriotism. Twice as many military-patriotic events were held in May this year than in the same month last year, with ‘Novaya Gazeta Europe’ calculating a total of 1.5 million such events. The paranoid scale of this 'school brainwashing’ campaign resembles the practices of totalitarian regimes and has concrete reasons behind it.