There is an old soviet joke that went something like: "optimists practice their english; pessimists practice their chinese; ...and realists practice reassembling their AK". It took on new meaning for me after I found plenty of YouTube footage of high-school clubs with timed disassembly/reassembly competitions.
(very competitive times too: I think the AK-47 is simpler than our rifles, but these kids —at least the ones who post online— are fast)
Obligatory propaganda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuPX8mjeb-E (Гагарина sang this at the kick-off concert for the Ukraine* invasion; I thought both Цой and Павличенко would have been rolling in their graves had they been aware.)
* there's even a rumour that the movie's production provided cover for preparatory espionage in Crimea...
Edit: something I always found strange: unknown sources (who I presume to be .ru-linked) were providing plenty of memes to US militia types that (in between appeals to religion, family values, etc.) played up the resemblance between the old Novorossiya flag and the CSA battle flag. However, I saw no mention of military-patriotic clubs in this flow despite the fact that militia-adjacent politicians in the States seem to love photo ops with rifle-toting kids; one would think they would've been perfect propaganda...
There is an old soviet joke that went something like: "optimists practice their english; pessimists practice their chinese; ...and realists practice reassembling their AK". It took on new meaning for me after I found plenty of YouTube footage of high-school clubs with timed disassembly/reassembly competitions.
(very competitive times too: I think the AK-47 is simpler than our rifles, but these kids —at least the ones who post online— are fast)
Obligatory propaganda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuPX8mjeb-E (Гагарина sang this at the kick-off concert for the Ukraine* invasion; I thought both Цой and Павличенко would have been rolling in their graves had they been aware.)
* there's even a rumour that the movie's production provided cover for preparatory espionage in Crimea...
Edit: something I always found strange: unknown sources (who I presume to be .ru-linked) were providing plenty of memes to US militia types that (in between appeals to religion, family values, etc.) played up the resemblance between the old Novorossiya flag and the CSA battle flag. However, I saw no mention of military-patriotic clubs in this flow despite the fact that militia-adjacent politicians in the States seem to love photo ops with rifle-toting kids; one would think they would've been perfect propaganda...