To understand modern autocrats, read Soviet children’s 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.