In the latest news out of Russia which has been embroiled in a bloody war of attrition since the invasion of neighboring Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has announced the resurrection of a program in which mothers who give birth to at least ten children are given a cash bonus as well as the honorary title of “Mother Heroine.”
This week, Putin issued a decree that revived the honor that was first established by murderous Russian dictator Joseph Stalin in the darkest days of the old Soviet Union, with the modern version reportedly paying Russian women who “birth and raise” 10 Russian citizens as the pariah nation seeks to increase its population, possibly at least partially to compensate for steep losses already taken on the Ukrainian battlefield and more to come in the brutal conflict that could drag on for years.
“The title will come with a reward of 1 million Russian Rubles, equating to roughly $16,645 in U.S. dollars, once the tenth child turns one year of age. Recipients will also earn a five-pointed golden star medal, the decree states,” according to Fox News. “The ‘Mother Heroine’ title comes with certain caveats, such as requiring all children to be alive on the tenth child’s first birthday unless they were killed serving in the military, civic service or a terrorist attack.”
“Russia began awarding the ‘Mother Heroine’ to mothers in 1944 and continued to do so until 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed,” Fox News reported.
(Image: Screengrab/Twitter)
Former U.S. DIA intelligence officer and author of “Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America,” Rebekah Koffler recalled the honorary “Mother Heroine” title from her days as a youngster growing up in Russia, a part of the Stalin-era initiative to “replenish the population lost during World War II, the famine and Stalin’s purges” to Fox News Digital.
“Putin is reviving this Soviet-era tactic to offset the impact of his war on Ukraine, in which thousands of young child-producing age men are dying,” she said. “But the truth is no rational young woman will have 10 children in Russia. First, the economic conditions don’t allow this, there’s no culture of having so many children. Since religion was outlawed in the USSR, the religious groups, like Catholics, who would otherwise have many children, do not.”
Associate professor at University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies Kristin Roth-Ey put the award in historical perspective.
“It was about service to the motherland,” she told The Washington Post, saying that Putin’s bringing it back is “obviously a conscious echo of the Stalinist past.”
“The war led to high anxiety about population loss. … It has resonances obviously with what is going on right now,” Roth-Ey added.
Twitter users reacted to Putin’s going back to the future with his “Mother Heroine” decree.
What’s the point? “Have more babies because I’ll need more draftees to send as cannon fodder for my territorial ambitions.”
— nuclear secrets? what nuclear secrets? (@madmantx2) August 17, 2022
Just what the world needs – more Russians.😟😟
— RobT (@Flooder23) August 17, 2022
Calling it, “Cannon fodder for Tomorrow!”
— paulaptb (@paulaptlb) August 17, 2022
Maybe stop sending them all off to die in Ukraine then
— Stephanie Martin 🏳️🌈 (@Lady_Azkadelia) August 17, 2022
Invading countries and starting wars definitely impacts population size.
— Sandra Taylor (@Alexandra_AUS_) August 18, 2022
Ahhh yes. More bodies for the slave labor, forced work and to send off to slaughter in an effort to conquer sovereign nations
— Probably a burner account (@probably_burner) August 17, 2022
“None of these methods have fully resolved the demographic crisis in Russia, where the total fertility rate is 1.824 births per woman, which is below the replacement level of 2.2,” Koffler added.
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Chris Donaldson is an ordinary American who is concerned about rampant corruption as well as the ongoing attacks on our way of life by those who have contempt for our hard-earned freedoms. A Navy veteran, he has been a frequent contributor to conservative websites and resides in Florida.
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