To understand modern autocrats, read Soviet children’s literature

https://www.economist.com/culture/2022/02/23/to-understand-modern-autocrats-read-soviet-childrens-literature

The dragons are back, from Ankara to Moscow, hoodwinking their peoples while claiming to protect them from non-existent threats. Some of their subjects tolerate them; many cheer them on. Shvarts captures it all: the lies which tyrants spread to mask their depredations as patriotism, their cynical insistence that resistance is futile and their need to murder those who speak the truth.