In society’s perception, the reality of constant psychological mobilization and the tense expectation of global military conflict became a way of life to be reproduced by two generations, for whom fidelity to convictions was always inextricably linked to fear and the feeling of powerlessness in the face of fate. The unprecedented destructive power of the new superweapons had a disarming effect on both sides of the invisible front. Henceforth, the strength of either party could only be measured by its capacity to make people accept choices that have already been made for them in advance. Paradoxically, the constant feeling of risk has proven to be one of the most stable conditions of recent modern history, which is why its memory has always prompted so much subconscious nostalgia.
Today, the spectre of the Cold War has returned, and it has roused not only old‑school diplomats, but generals, and/or propaganda hacks, who finally feel that they are once again on more solid ground.
—Ilya Budraitskis, Dissidents Among Dissidents: Ideology, Politics and the Left in Post‑Soviet Russia, (London: Verso, 2022), 19.
I think this is an interesting insight which addresses something of the appeal of both Ostalgia and Europe’s present insistent drumbeat for war with Russia. There is constancy, familiar comfort in having a known enemy.
