patriot's pen 2021 winning essay

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Bailey Schwagel Winner of Patriot’s Pen Essay Contest

Community March 2, 2021 Staff 0

Sixth grader Bailey Schwagel penned the winning essay for the local division of the national 2020-2021 Patriot’s Pen contest. The competition is sponsored by the Milbank VFW and VFW Auxiliary. Veronica Fonder, an eighth grader took second place; Keira Steffen, a seventh grader, was selected as the third-place winner. 

This year’s theme is “What is Patriotism to Me?”. The contest is open to all sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students, including home-schooled students.  Both Schwagel’s and Fonder’s essays advance to the district competition. Two essays will be submitted from Milbank this year due to the large number of local participants. The local winners received a certificate, medal, and a monetary prize. 

District winners go to the state contest. The state winner receives an all-expenses paid trip to Washington D.C. 

Bailey’s Essay: What patriotism means to me. What patriotism means to me is how I love and support my country. I support my country by supporting the military. I support the military by thanking the veterans who have gone to war knowing they might die. I support the veterans that have died and the veterans that have came back from war. People have stepped up and done their part by going to war. Our life would be so different if we didn’t win the wars we won. We wouldn’t have the rights or the freedoms we have today if people didn’t step up and do their part. That leads me to how I love my country. I love my country because on every 4th of July we frank the people who have fought for us. I would be thankful for their fighting because if they didn’t our country would be way different. We wouldn’t have freedom, like the freedom of speech. The freedom of speech gives us the right to speak up and share our opinions about laws and voting. We also wouldn’t have the freedom of religion. The freedom of religion gives us the right to pick our religion. And the last freedom I will share is the freedom of owning weapons. The freedom of owning your own weapon gives the ability to have a weapon in houses or have a weapon in a safe area. But we would never have had these freedoms if it weren’t for the people that choose to fight for our freedom.  This leads me to how I honor my country. I do this by saying the pledge every morning in school and never disrespect the flag. I also thank people that have donated money, food, and supplies. On Memorial Day we honor and remember the people that have served. The people that have lost their lives for us. We always need to remember and honor those people. I have a grandpa that is a veteran. He stepped up and did his part. And he is still with me today. I am proud that he stepped up and did the right thing. This is what patriotism means to me. It means to love, support, and honor your country. I hope you always remember and honor the people that have fought for you. They willing offered their lives for our freedoms so our country would be safe.

photo: Veronica Fonder, Bailey Schwagel, Keira Steffen

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PATRIOT PEN

The essay contest encourages young minds to examine America’s history, along with their own experiences in modern American society, by drafting a 300- to 400-word essay, expressing their views based on a patriotic theme chosen by the VFW Commander-in-Chief. 

The Michigan 2024 Patriot's Pen winner was "Mr." Derek Plichta  from Farewell Middle School in VFW District 11 and VFW Post 3030! 

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2023-2024 PATRIOT’S PEN ESSAY PROGRAM

" How are you Inspired by America ? ”

All information pertaining to the theme, judging, eligibility, awards, and other aspects of this program are contained in the Veterans of Foreign Wars program booklet for the Annual Patriot’s Pen Essay Program.  District Commanders are responsible to ensure that their District Chairman are conducting their programs within these rules and deadlines.  District Commanders are solely responsible for the conduct of the programs within their Districts.  Make sure that copies of this program are distributed to all the Posts within your District in sufficient time to ensure that there is a successful competition.

The Patriot’s Pen Essay program is a joint program with the VFW Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars of Michigan. The Auxiliary does not need the permission of a Post to participate in the program.  Post and District Chairman are expected to include their VFW Auxiliary Counterparts in all activities concerning the conduct of the local and District programs.  Coordination of the District program is the responsibility of the District Commanders and District Chairman.  Post Chairman must refer to their District program for the program requirements and deadlines.

Judging the Contest

The suggested number of judges is five to nine, with a minimum of three.  Judges should be from outside your Posts and Auxiliaries and should represent your community.  Judges must not in any way be connected to the students in the competition.  Set the date for your judging and invite the judges at least 60 days in advance.  Remind them a week before the competition with a letter or email, and two days before with a phone call.

Eligibility

Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grade students in public, private, parochial, and home schools in the State of Michigan.  Former first place winners at the State and National level of competition or any Foreign Exchange students are not eligible. Students do not have to be relatives of a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars or its VFW Auxiliary to participate.

Essays must be typed, or computer printed in English, between 300-400 words, on a single sheet of paper, with no added color or art.

To receive credit for participation in the Patriot’s Pen Essay Competition, a Post must sponsor the program in their community. While it is important to offer the Patriot’s Pen Essay Program in our schools, it is not solely a program for the schools.  You may offer the competition to any sixth, seventh, or eighth grade student.  All entries must be submitted directly to the Post. They may be sponsored through local schools, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Church youth groups, Junior ROTC programs, the home schooled, etc.  Posts are encouraged to solicit participants from as many sources as possible.  The Post will hold their own judging and may submit to the District the number of students permitted by the following:

·        1-15 Student Participants:  1 Top Post entry is allowed to advance to District.

·        16-30 Student Participants: 2 Top Post entries are allowed to advance to District.

·        31-45 Student Participants: 3 Top Post entries are allowed to advance to District, etc.

Note:  No Limit

Posts may advance as many winners as they select based on the total number of students participating.  Post judging is the responsibility of the Post Chairman and must be conducted in accordance with the National Judging Criteria.  The Post may forward each first-place winning entry to the District.  Each student entry submitted by a Post to the District must be an equal first place winner. This means that each Post student entry must receive the same award.  For example, a Post has fifty-five student entries and is eligible to send four entries to the District for judging.  Those four entries must each receive an equal first place award from the Post.  If the Post lists them as first, second, third and fourth place, then they can only send in one entry as the first-place winner.  Note:  First place Post winner’s entry packets must include a completed Student Biographical Questionnaire, School Release Form and Wallet size phot when sent to the District.  Post packets will not be accepted unless complete.

School/Youth Group Competition Alternatives

We offer teachers/youth leaders the option to use the Patriot’s Pen as a writing exercise.  The teacher/leader may submit all the entries to the Post for judging or conduct a judging within the group or class and advance a winner for every fifteen participants as shown above.  Note: The Post Chairman should make this decision working closely with the teacher or group leader.

Each District shall be responsible for the conduct of the program and judging of entries within their District.  District Chairman are expected to promote the expansion of the program by encouraging the participation of additional Posts.  It is not always possible to restrict sponsorship strictly along VFW District Boundaries.  Posts may solicit student participation from any geographical area within the State of Michigan if they do not interfere with the sponsorship of other Posts.  District Chairman are expected to assist Posts in the coordination of sponsorship of all schools in the District.  It is unacceptable that a school is not contacted.  Each District may submit only one entry to the Department for judging. This entry must be certified on the proper National Entry Form by the District Chairman to be the District First place winner of the District Program Judging.  The following items MUST accompany the District Entry to the Department for Judging:

·        One Student Essay in accordance with the above rules.

·        One completed student entry from the National Program Booklet.

·        A quality head and shoulder photograph, wallet size only.

·        One typed copy of the student’s essay.

·        One signed Student Release Form (Link below).

·        One Student Biographical Questionnaire (Link below) must accompany your District Winner.

It is the responsibility of District Chairman to ensure that all materials are included.  Any entry that does not include all the required above items may not be judged.

To obtain program credit the Post Chairman portion of the Student Entry Form must be completed and submitted to the District with each Post entry.  The form must include the number of students participating from the school and the approximate cost for the program and awards.  Proper credit cannot be given without this information.  District Chairman are required to submit a consolidated report of Post participation within their District using the District Report form and the District Summary Form.  The reports MUST accompany the District Entry to Department.  It is the responsibility of the Post, District, and Department Adjutants to input the Patriot’s entries into the All-American Dashboard.  This is to include all monetary values spent on this event.  Failure to do so can cause the Post, District, and/or Department to show a NOT MET in this category.

The deadline for Post sponsored entries is October 31, 2023.   Post judging may not be held before November 1, 2023, and must be completed in time to ensure that winning entries are delivered to the District Chairman by November 16, 2023.    District judging may not be held before November 16, 2023 , and must be completed in time to ensure that the winning entry with all required materials are in the hands of the Department Director by December 16, 2023.   The Department deadline for District entries is December 16, 2023 .  This deadline is absolute, and it includes all paperwork.  Department judging will be closed and will be the responsibility of the Department Committee. Please be advised that the state judging will be attended only by the VFW Department Committee members, VFW State Auxiliary Committee members, and the State Judges.  The Committee has the authority to disqualify from the Department judging any entry which is in violation of the rules as stated in the Department Program and the National Program Booklet.

All Post and District awards are the responsibility of those organizations.  Department awards will be presented at the 2024 Department of Michigan Mid-Winter Conference.  All District winners are expected to be present.  Each District must assume the cost of their winner’s transportation, meals, and lodging. Department will provide each District winner with one banquet ticket.  Banquet tickets for family members and other guests are the sole responsibility of the District in cooperation with the sponsoring Post.

Michael Martin, Director

199 East 34 th St, Apt 2

Holland MI 49423

616-594-9151

[email protected]

Denise Arnold, Auxiliary Chair

9525 E River Rd

Mt Pleasant MI 48858

989-621-0327

[email protected]

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VFW Announces Patriot’s Pen Winner

Cole Williams, left, and Post 9053 Commander Charlie Mugrage, right, at Meigs Middle School. Submitted photo.

MEIGS COUNTY, Ohio – Each Fall the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) has two a youth competitions. Patriot’s Pen, a written essay competition, for Grades 6-8 and Voice of Democracy, a speech competition, for grades 9 thru 12. This year for the first time a very long time, Tuppers Plains VFW Post 9053, sponsored it for the students living in Meigs County. Meigs Middle School eighth grader Cole Williams won at the Post level whose essay was then sent up to the District Level. District informed the Post 9053 Patriot’s Pen Chairman of Cole Williams winning the District level and his essay has now been sent to the State.  The topics for the Patriot’s Pen essay was “How do I become a better American?” The topic for the Speech competition was “America, Where do we go from here?”. The essay is to be 300-400 words long and the speech was to be 3-5 minutes long.  The Tuppers Plains VFW Post 9053 is looking forward to sponsoring these competitions in the upcoming years.

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PATRIOTS PEN

POST CHAIRMAN - DON HOFFMAN

DISTRICT CHAIRMAN - MONTY PARR

DEPARTMENT CHAIRMAN -  DEBBIE McELHANNON  

PATRIOT'S PEN

2021-2022 Theme: "How Can I Be A Good American?"

WHAT IS THE PATRIOT’S PEN?

Conducted nationwide, this VFW-sponsored youth essay competition encourages students to use their minds and knowledge of America’s history and their experience of today’s American society to write essays expressing their views on an annual patriotic theme. We invite you to join the more than 138,000 students who participated last year in this contest. Patriot’s Pen gives 6 th , 7 th , and 8 th  grade students the opportunity to express their opinion on a patriotic theme and improve their writing skills, while they compete for awards and prizes. The awards from all levels of the competition total $1.2 million each year. Each Department (state) first place winner competes at the national level for $55,000 in award money. The first place national winner receives $5,000 and an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the winner and a parent or guardian. Each state winner will receive at least $500 at the national level. The National Association of Secondary School Principals has placed this program on their National Advisory List of Contests for participation.

The theme for the Annual VFW Patriot’s Pen Essay is "How Can I Be A Good American?”. The contest is open to all students in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades in public, private, parochial schools, as well as, home-schooled children in the United States and its territories or its possessions and dependents of U.S. military or civilian personnel in overseas schools. Former first place state winners are not eligible to compete again. Foreign exchange students, adults and former winners that placed in the National contest are not eligible to compete. Although U.S. citizenship is not required, students must be lawful U.S. permanent residents or have applied for permanent residence (the application cannot have been denied) and intends to become a U.S. citizen at the earliest opportunity allowed by law. Brochures on the program were mailed to all Post Commanders and Auxiliary Presidents. Schools should be contacted as soon as they open for the current year in order that the teachers can include the contest in the lesson plans. Posts are responsible for giving their area schools Patriot’s Pen pamphlets. You can check the program on the web at  https://www.vfw.org/patriotspen  to see requirements and print the entry forms.  

The essay must be typed in English and be 300-400 words in length. Poetry is not accepted. Word count does not include the title or footnotes.  NO GRAPHICS OR COLOR ALLOWED .  The essay must be a contestant’s original work and a product of the contestant’s own thinking. Contestants will NOT identify themselves within their essay to include, but not limited to, their name, school, city, state, race or national origin. Do not put the students name on the essay; use the entry form as the cover sheet.

VERY IMPORTANT: POST CHAIRMAN SHOULD pursue a notice in local media.

Posts may submit one winning entry to the District for judging.  Districts may submit one winning entry to the Department Chairman.

WINNING ENTRIES ADVANCED FOR JUDGING MUST HAVE THE FOLLOWING:

1. Official entry form and info required. Forms may be printed from online at www.vfw.org

2. Three typed copies of the essay

PATRIOT’S PEN Deadlines: The deadlines for Patriot’s Pen are as follows:

 1.     Midnight, October 31, Entries to the Post*

2.    November 15, Completion of Post judging**

3.    December 10, Completion of District judging**

4.    December 10, January 15, Posts need to submit report on dashboard to acknowledge that they participated in Patriot Pen*

5.    December 13, Email or fax a copy of your  winning essay  to the email or fax above*(Email preferred)

6.    December 15, District  winning entry packet with head shot picture of winner must be received by Department Chairman*

7.    January 10, Completion of Department judging**

8.    January 15, District participation reports to Department Chairman* District chairmen should roll up the post reports into one District report. All District reports must be received by 15 January and  include the phone number and email address of the chairman of that district .*

9.    January 15, Districts must submit a report and approve post reports on dashboard to acknowledge that the posts and District participated in Patriot Pen*

10.  January 15, Department winners to National*

11.  January 31, Department reports to National*

*required deadlines

**suggested deadlines

DO NOT mail District entries and required forms to State Headquarters.  Mail them directly to the State Patriot’s Pen Chairman in above heading.

Note: It’s critical that the Post/District reports be accurate. Ask for guidance if something is unclear.

Points Value in judging is as follows:

             Knowledge of Theme -           30 pts

            Theme Development  -           35 pts

             Clarity of Ideas            -            35 pts

            Possible Total             -           100 pts

First, second, and third place state winners will receive awards presented by State Chairman at the Mid-Winter Conference.

 An entry for judging at the next higher level is a requirement for All-State selection.

Individual awards will not be permitted to be presented by the respective District Chairmen at the Mid-Winter Conference. These awards SHOULD BE PRESENTED AT THE DISTRICT'S AWARDS PROGRAM. Posts and Districts are encouraged to present awards to their respective entries.

OTHER GUIDELINES:

If the  school does not participate ,  or if there are no schools in your area, the Post should contact student(s)and have them participate in a Post contest with the Post winner being entered into the District competition.  Home-schooled children,  your child, grandchild, or a friend's child might just be interested in winning a scholarship. Do not lose the opportunity to have your Post or Auxiliary compete in the Patriot’s Pen contest.

Posts and Auxiliaries should make their awards as large as possible. WE HAVE TO have an incentive for the teachers to push the program in order to get larger student participation. Many Posts and Auxiliaries have an Awards Night at the Post Home for teachers, community leaders and students. Some schools request that it be held at a school function. Whichever is done, make sure the students are rewarded and the community is aware of it. It is suggested that each Post and/or Auxiliary present some sort of citation to participating winners, students, teachers, etc. Citations can be ordered from the National Emblem and Supply Catalog. Department can help you create a citation also.

  All entries, including Home Schools , must be judged at the VFW Post level. The only exception is where schools/classes/youth groups have large numbers of students and wish to conduct their own competition, submitting one winner for each 15 students to the local VFW Post competition. Individual students may submit their entry directly to the local VFW Post within your U.S. state of residence provided they have not competed in a school class competition.

Click here to view the Rules & Eligibility Requirements:  Patriots-Pen-Rules-and-Eligibility.pdf

Click here to download the current year Entry Form:  Patriots-Pen-Entry-Form-Fillable.pdf

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PATRIOT'S PEN

Patriot's pen.

Each year, nearly 68,800 students in sixth through eighth grades enter the VFW’s  Patriot’s Pen  youth essay contest for a chance to win their share of more than $1.4 million in state and national awards. Each first place state winner receives a minimum of $500 at the national level, and the national first place winner wins $5,000! 

The essay contest encourages young minds to examine America’s history, along with their own experiences in modern American society, by drafting a 300- to 400-word essay, expressing their views based on a patriotic theme chosen by the VFW Commander-in-Chief. Before submitting your essay,  read the rules and eligibility requirements , and  find your sponsoring  local VFW Post  as applications must be turned in by  midnight, Oct. 31 .  Download and complete the 2023-2024 entry form here . 

The 2023-24 theme is:  "How Are You Inspired by America?"

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YOUTH ESSAYS

Youth Scholarships

The VFW is dedicated to promoting patriotism and investing in our future generation. If you are a democracy-loving high school student interested in a $35,000 college scholarship or a patriotic middle school student interested in winning $5,000, these scholarships may be for you.

Voice of Democracy

Established in 1947, our  Voice of Democracy  audio-essay program provides high school students with the unique opportunity to express themselves in regards to a democratic and patriotic-themed recorded essay.  Each year, nearly 25,000 ninth through 12th grade students from across the country enter to win their share of more than $1 million in educational scholarships and incentives awarded through the program. 

The national first place winner receives a $35,000 scholarship paid directly to the recipient’s American university, college or vocational/technical school. A complete list of other national scholarships range from $1,000-$21,000, and the first place winner from each VFW Department (state) wins at least a scholarship of $1,000. Before submitting your essay, download the  2024-2025 entry form here  and find your sponsoring  local VFW Post  as applications must be turned in by  midnight, Oct. 31 . 

The 2024-25 theme is:  "Is America Today Our Forefathers' Vision?"

About the 2023-2024 winner ...

Sophia Lin, a high school junior at BASIS Scottsdale in Scottsdale, Arizona, was named the 2023-2024 Voice of Democracy first place winner. Sophia's speech on the theme, "What Are the Greatest Attributes of Our Democracy?" won her a $35,000 college scholarship. Sophia was sponsored by Scottsdale VFW Post 3513.  Watch as Sophia delivered her speech during the VFW's Parade of Winners award  ceremony or  read it here .

Want to catch up on everything that happened this year? You can watch the full  Parade of Winners ceremony  which was streamed live on Facebook, or  see this year's complete list of winners .

Patriot's Pen

Each year, nearly 68,800 students in sixth through eighth grades enter the VFW’s  Patriot’s Pen  youth essay contest for a chance to win their share of nearly $1 million in state and national awards. Each first place state winner receives a minimum of $500 at the national level, and the national first place winner wins $5,000! 

The essay contest encourages young minds to examine America’s history, along with their own experiences in modern American society, by drafting a 300- to 400-word essay, expressing their views based on a patriotic theme chosen by the VFW Commander-in-Chief. Before submitting your essay,  download the 2024-2025 entry form here  and  find your sponsoring  local VFW Post  as applications must be turned in by  midnight, Oct. 31 . 

The 2023-24 theme is:  "My Voice in America's Democracy?"

Bryant Day, an eighth grade student from Ashland, Ohio, was named the 2023-2024 Patriot's Pen first place winner. His essay on the theme, "How Are You Inspired by America?" won the national first place $5,000 award. Bryant was sponsored by VFW Post 9943 and its Auxiliary in Mansfield, Ohio.

Watch as Bryant delivered his winning essay  during the VFW's Parade of Winners streamed live on Facebook, or  read  his essay here.  See the complete list of 2024 national winners .

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Franklin County's First News

Jay VFW Post recognizes winners of “Patriot’s Pen” essay competition and Teacher of the Year

JAY – Local Jay Veterans of Foreign Wars, Frank L. Mitchell Post 3335 announces the 2024 local winners of the “Patriot’s Pen” Essay Competition and the selection of Teacher of the Year.

Local students in the Jay/Livermore/Livermore Falls area submitted essays expressing their views on an annual patriotic theme. The 2024 theme was “How am I inspired by America?”

Receiving first place was Landyn Anthony, second place Avery Cook, and third place Jailinn Fortin. More than twenty-eight local students from Spruce Mountain Middle School (SMMS) submitted their essays and were independently judged by local town leaders that included Carrie Judd from Livermore, Carrie Castonguay from Livermore Falls, and Shiloh Lafreniere from Jay. Judging is based on how well the applicants understand the knowledge of the theme; how they relate their own experiences to the theme; and their ability to give the reader a clear understanding of the theme. All SMMS winners were treated to an awards ceremony Sunday, Jan. 29 that included a sit-down dinner for them and their families, award certificates, and award checks from the Post, Post Auxiliaries, and District leadership teams.

Post Commander Rick Merrill commented that this year’s essays were very well written and it was a pleasure to see the largest amount of entries by local students from our communities in many years. Patriot’s Pen Co-chairperson Kim Cote also noted that with the large amount of applicants this year, the Jay post was able to share with other local VFW posts in South Paris and Rumford those students’ essays that did not place first, second, or third with the Jay Post. Cote mentions that SMMS students “Madelyn Rowley took first place at the Rumford Post, and Melody Hubble took first place at the South Paris Post!”

Co-chairman Jim Manter adds that: “We want to also especially thank Teacher Denise Acritelli, from Spruce Mountain Middle school, who coordinated efforts again this year for our local students, to make our contest such a success.”

The Patriot’s Pen Award is open to sixth, seventh and eighth graders of any school or home-schooled, and no family history of military background is required. A written essay of 300 to 400 words is submitted to the local VFW Post. Last year, over 130,000 students submitted essays nationally.

Prizes begin at the local post level, with VFW Post 3335 of Jay awarding $75, $50, and $25 cash to the first, second and third place winners of each contest.

Also of note, Cote adds: “Landyn Anthony won the post and then won the next level judging, the District competition. Landyn was advanced to the State level competition. This earned Landyn an opportunity to attend the state banquet on January 21st, and meet the other 10 district essay winners from across the state.”

Prizes at the national level for the Patriot’s Pen Competition include $5,000 directly to the student to be spent preferably toward their future education, but can be used any way the student chooses. The second and third place national prizes include checks of $4,000 and $3,500, respectively. Prizes for the middle-school National competition go all the way through sixth place. Over $55,000 in total prizes were awarded in 2023.

Voice of Democracy winner for the JAY Post was Aisha Ibrahim from Lewiston High School. Ibrahim also was selected as the District winner and had the opportunity to attend the State awards banquet.

Also announced by the VFW Post was its selection of Teacher of the Year (ToY). Jim Manter, post judge advocate, mentions that this year was especially fruitful for the Post selection: “Denise Acritelli, from Spruce Mountain Middle School, was our 2023-24 ToY winner. But it gets better! Denise won also the District level, and then was selected as the overall VFW State (Department of Maine) winner, and is now in the running of National Teacher of the Year!”

“We at the Jay post are so proud of Denise for her accomplishment, and are pulling for her when they select in April from the top 53 teachers in the country,” Manter said. “This is not just a VFW event now, our entire community and SM School System will be getting national attention because of Denise.”

“We all need to congratulate her for getting recognized for her teaching methods and ability, and give her thanks for all the volunteer work she gives to our community!”

Should Acritelli win National selection, she will receive VFW grants for her school, and expense paid trip to the VFW National convention in July to Louisville, Kentucky.

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Pro-Navalny Protests Sweep Russia in Challenge to Putin

The protests moved across time zones and more than 3,000 people were arrested in at least 109 cities, signaling widespread fatigue with the corruption-plagued political order presided over by President Vladimir V. Putin.

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By Anton Troianovski and Andrew Higgins

MOSCOW — From the frozen streets of Russia’s Far East and Siberia to the grand plazas of Moscow and St. Petersburg, tens of thousands of Russians rallied in support of the jailed opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny on Saturday in the biggest nationwide showdown in years between the Kremlin and its opponents.

The demonstrations did not immediately pose a dire threat to President Vladimir V. Putin’s grip on power. But their broad scope, and the remarkable defiance displayed by many of the protesters, signaled widespread fatigue with the stagnant, corruption-plagued political order that Mr. Putin has presided over for two decades.

The protests began to unfold in the eastern regions of Russia, a country of 11 time zones, and they moved like a wave across the nation despite a heavy police presence and a drumbeat of menacing warnings on state media to stay away.

On the island of Sakhalin, just north of Japan, hundreds gathered in front of the regional government building and chanted, “Putin is a thief!” The protests spread to the sub-Arctic city of Yakutsk, where it was minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and to rallies attended by thousands in cities across Siberia. Hours later, as night fell in Moscow, people pelted the police with snowballs and kicked at a car belonging to the domestic intelligence agency.

By late evening in Moscow, more than 3,000 people had been arrested in at least 109 cities, according to OVD-Info, an activist group that tracks arrests at protests.

Mr. Navalny’s supporters claimed success and promised more protests next weekend — even though many directors of his regional offices had been arrested.

“If Putin thinks the most frightening things are behind him, he is very sorely and naïvely mistaken,” Leonid Volkov, a top aide to Mr. Navalny, said on a live broadcast to YouTube from an undisclosed location outside Russia.

The protests came six days after Mr. Navalny , a 44-year-old anti-corruption activist, was arrested upon his arrival in Moscow on a flight from Germany, where he had spent months recovering from poisoning by a military-grade nerve agent. Western officials and Mr. Navalny have described the poisoning, which took place in Siberia in August, as an assassination attempt by the Russian state. The Kremlin denies this.

Mr. Navalny, who now faces a yearslong prison term, called on his supporters across the country to take to the streets this weekend, even though officials did not authorize protests. Russians responded with the most widespread demonstrations that the nation has seen since at least 2017 — numbering in the tens of thousands in Moscow and St. Petersburg and in the thousands in each of several cities to the east, including Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Omsk and the Pacific port of Vladivostok.

“There was this heavy feeling that Russian public opinion had hardened in cement, as though it was stuck in a dead, hidebound ball,” said Vyacheslav Ivanets, a lawyer in the Siberian city of Irkutsk who took part in the protests. “Now I feel that the situation has changed.”

Mr. Navalny, long Mr. Putin’s loudest domestic critic, has used his populist touch on social media and humorous, tough and simple language to emerge as Russia’s only opposition leader commanding a following across a broad cross-section of society. His status among Putin critics rose further in recent months when he survived the nerve-agent attack and then returned home to Russia even though he was facing near-certain arrest.

That arrest on Sunday, protesters said, helped unleash pent-up discontent over economic stagnation and widespread official corruption under Mr. Putin.

But Mr. Putin’s Kremlin has outlasted protests before — and there was little immediate indication that this time would be different. Russia’s state media quickly made it clear that there was no chance the Kremlin would buckle under pressure, condemning the protests as a nationwide “wave of aggression” that could lead to prison terms against some participants.

“Attacking a police officer is a criminal offense,” a state television report said. “Hundreds of videos were shot. All the faces are on them.”

In Washington, the State Department said on Saturday that it “strongly condemns the use of harsh tactics against protesters and journalists” in Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry countered by claiming that the United States had helped “incite radical elements” to join the unauthorized protests and that American officials were “facing a serious talking-to” by Russian diplomats.

Some protesters acknowledged that, despite the significance of Saturday’s protests, it would take far greater numbers to change the course of the nation’s politics. In neighboring Belarus, many more people protested for weeks last year against the authoritarian president, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko — a close ally of Mr. Putin’s — without unseating him.

“I’m a bit disappointed, honestly,” said Nikita Melekhin, a 21-year-old a nurse in Moscow. “I was expecting more.”

On the streets, the police presented a monumental show of force, but largely refrained from large-scale violence. At Pushkin Square in central Moscow, the focal point of the rally in the capital, baton-wielding riot police repeatedly rushed the crowd to try to disperse it, but avoided using tear gas or other more violent crowd-control methods.

They arrested most of Mr. Navalny’s top associates beforehand and detained his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, at a protest on Saturday before releasing her hours later.

Still, videos circulating on social media captured remarkable clashes between protesters and the police — an indication of a new fearlessness among some Russians and of the uncertainty of what lies ahead. In several cases, protesters could be seen pelting the police with snowballs, even though prosecutors have in the past sought yearslong prison sentences for people who threw objects at officers.

Chanting “shame” protesters in Moscow also threw snowballs at a passing government car. After it came to a stop, people rushed at the car , which belongs to Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, and started kicking it. The driver suffered an eye injury in the attack, the state news media reported later.

The state news media reported that at least 39 Moscow law-enforcement officers were injured in Saturday’s events. There were also videos of officers viciously beating and kicking individual protesters, including outside the Moscow jail where Mr. Navalny has been confined.

The question now is whether the intensity of the clashes will further galvanize Russians — or end up dissuading them from heeding the Navalny team’s call for more protests.

Opinion polls in recent months — of uncertain value in a country saturated by state propaganda and where people are often fearful of speaking out — have indicated that Mr. Putin faces no grave challenge to his popularity from Mr. Navalny, whose name has never been allowed to appear on a presidential ballot. Mr. Putin refuses to utter his name in public.

A November survey by the Levada Center, an independent and highly respected polling organization, found that only 2 percent of respondents named Mr. Navalny as their first choice when asked whom they would choose if a presidential election were to be held the following Sunday. Fifty-five percent named Mr. Putin.

Nevertheless, Mr. Navalny’s dramatic return to Russia last Sunday — and his video report about Mr. Putin’s purported secret palace, which has been viewed more than 70 million times on YouTube — have raised the opposition leader’s prominence across the country.

“I was never a big supporter of Navalny, and yet I understand perfectly well that this is a very serious situation,” Vitaliy Blazhevich, 57, a university teacher, said in a telephone interview about why he had gone out to rally for Mr. Navalny in the city of Khabarovsk on the Chinese border.

“There’s always hope that something will change,” Mr. Blazhevich said.

Vasily Zimin, a 47-year-old partner in a Moscow law firm, trudged through slush and said he had come to protest the rampant corruption during Mr. Putin’s time in power.

“How can you say, ‘I can’t take any more of this’ while sitting on your couch?” he said.

Ivan Nechepurenko and Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting from Moscow. Oleg Matsnev and Sophia Kishkovsky contributed research.

Anton Troianovski is the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times. He was previously Moscow bureau chief of The Washington Post and spent nine years with The Wall Street Journal in Berlin and New York. More about Anton Troianovski

Andrew Higgins is the bureau chief for East and Central Europe based in Warsaw. Previously a correspondent and bureau chief in Moscow for The Times, he was on the team awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting, and led a team that won the same prize in 1999 while he was Moscow bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal.  More about Andrew Higgins

clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

How to read Vladimir Putin

The writings and speeches of the russian president reveal growing resentment toward washington and a longing to restore russia’s cold war status.

The moment is etched in the lore of Vladimir Putin: The Berlin Wall had just succumbed to hammers, chisels and history, and a KGB officer still shy of 40 and stationed in Dresden, East Germany, was in a panic, burning documents and requesting military support as a crowd approached. “We cannot do anything without orders from Moscow,” Putin was told on the phone. “And Moscow is silent.” In an interview appearing in his 2000 book, “ First Person ,” Putin recalls that dreadful silence. “I got the feeling then that the country no longer existed,” he said. “That it had disappeared.” Two years after the wall went down, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics did, too. A decade after, Putin would ascend to power in Russia, talking about a revival.

The death of the Soviet Union, and Putin’s autopsy of the corpse, helps explain why he has risked a European conflict — and a confrontation with Washington — by launching a brutal assault on Ukraine. The U.S.S.R., he continued in that interview more than two decades ago, collapsed because it was suffering “a paralysis of power.” If the phrase sounds familiar, that’s because Putin repeated it in a defiant speech justifying his new war. The demise of the U.S.S.R., Putin stated on Feb. 24, “has shown us that the paralysis of power . . . is the first step toward complete degradation and oblivion.” The end of the Cold War, in his view, was not a matter of ideology or economics but of attitude and will. The Soviets blinked, and the Americans seized the opportunity. “We lost confidence for only one moment, but it was enough to disrupt the balance of forces in the world,” Putin declared. So much of what has followed — the unipolar era of U.S. supremacy that Putin reviles, the expansion of NATO he decries, the diminishment of Russia he rejects and the restoration he now seeks — only affirms his fixation on that moment.

“What Putin Really Wants” is a perennial topic for cable news debates and big-think magazine covers; the new invasion of Ukraine has prompted questions about the Russian leader’s mental health and pandemic-era isolation . But his motives can also be gleaned in part from his book and his frequent essays and major speeches, all seething with resentment, propaganda and self-justification. In light of these writings, Russia’s attack on Ukraine seems less about reuniting two countries that Putin considers “a single whole,” as he put it in a lengthy essay last year, than about challenging the United States and its NATO minions, those cocky, illegitimate winners of the Cold War. “Where did this insolent manner of talking down from the height of their exceptionalism, infallibility and all-permissiveness come from?” Putin demanded during his declaration of war. A world with one dominant superpower is “unacceptable,” he has stated, and he constantly warns that this imbalance — exemplified in NATO’s expansion — threatens Russia’s existence. “For our country, it is a matter of life and death,” he contends.

In “First Person,” a collection of interviews with Putin and various relatives and associates, he brags that he received top grades in high school, except for one subject. “I had gotten a B in composition,” he admits. If so, the teacher got it about right. His writing elsewhere veers from straightforward to overwrought, from reflective to overwhelmingly self-serving. Even so, these compositions serve as memos dictated for the archives of history: Putin’s attempts to strike a posture of perpetual defiance, to articulate a Russian exceptionalism immune from rules and norms. They portray a leader intent on redressing a perceived historical wrong inflicted on his country and himself, and a man convinced that Moscow must never fall silent again.

In late 1999, Putin, then prime minister, issued a long essay on “Russia at the Turn of the Millennium,” lamenting his country’s deteriorating international standing. He blames Russia’s economic decline of the 1990s on the “historic futility” of Soviet-era communism and on “schemes taken from foreign textbooks,” a dig at the Western consultants who had parachuted in carrying market models and bullet-point reforms. With weak infrastructure, low foreign investment and lousy health indicators, Putin writes, Russia faced the real possibility of “sliding to the second, and possibly even third, echelon of world states.”

Nonetheless, Putin is adamant that the nation could be glorious once again, that “it is too early to bury Russia as a great power.” The answer is not a return to Communist Party values — they were “a road to a blind alley” — but a long-term strategy for economic development and moral, even spiritual, renewal. The details are hazy, but for one: “Russia needs a strong state power and must have it,” he declares. Putin couches that requirement in almost mystical terms. “From the very beginning, Russia was created as a supercentralized state,” he later explains in his book. “That’s practically laid down in its genetic code, its traditions, and the mentality of its people.”

The 1999 manifesto, published shortly before Boris Yeltsin resigned the presidency and handed power to Putin, is more grandiose than grand; Putin even considers Russia’s restoration among the “signal events” of the new millennium and the anniversary of Christendom. But when he argues that “responsible socio-political forces” should build the strategy for Russian renewal, it is pretty obvious whom Putin has in mind. In “First Person,” published the following year, he ponders his “historical mission,” praises the stability of monarchies and considers the possibility of amending the constitution to lengthen presidential terms. “Maybe four years is enough time to get things done,” he says. “But four years is a short term.” A colleague quoted in “First Person” who worked with Putin in the St. Petersburg mayor’s office in the early 1990s recalls how, rather than hang the standard portrait of Yeltsin in his office, Putin chose an image of Peter the Great. Russia’s glory is his goal, but Putin’s own power is always the convenient means.

Standing in the way of that greatness and power, Putin has long concluded, is the United States. Despite an early conciliatory tone — “We value our relations with the United States and care about Americans’ perception of us,” Putin wrote in a November 1999 op-ed justifying Moscow’s crackdown against Chechen separatists, and after 9/11 he was among the first heads of state to offer Washington support — any pretense of rapprochement soon dissipated into antagonism. In 2007, Putin addressed an international security conference in Munich and, informing the audience that he would “avoid excessive politeness,” launched into a diatribe against the U.S.-led post-Cold War system.

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“What is a unipolar world?” he asked. “It is a world in which there is one master, one sovereign.” He called this model not only “unacceptable” but “impossible,” and criticized Washington, mired in Iraq and Afghanistan, for having “overstepped its national borders in every way.” Putin assailed the NATO alliance for arraying its “frontline forces” on Russia’s borders, calling that a “serious provocation.” He complained that NATO and the European Union sought to supplant the United Nations (where, conveniently, Russia enjoys a Security Council veto) and that Western lectures on freedom were hypocritical cover for self-serving security policies: “Russia — we — are constantly being taught about democracy,” he said. “But for some reason those who teach us do not want to learn themselves.”

Moscow did not have to accept this imbalance of power, he argued: “Russia is a country with a history that spans more than a thousand years and has practically always used the privilege to carry out an independent foreign policy.” The invasion of Ukraine has supposedly proved his desire to upend and remake the international order, but Putin declared those intentions, publicly and clearly, long ago.

Last July, Putin published an essay titled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” The two nations are really one people sharing a faith, culture and language, he asserts, and “modern Ukraine” is little more than a creation of the Soviet era. As always, he calls out nefarious foreign efforts to undermine this shared heritage, but he also laments how the Soviet Union, at its inception, mistakenly granted individual Soviet republics the right to secede. This “time bomb,” he writes, went off at the end of the Cold War, and the former Soviet satellite states “found themselves abroad overnight, taken away . . . from their historical motherland.”

From 2018: Books on the Russia scandal focus on the news. What they need is more history.

In their book, “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin,” Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy write that Putin often deploys “useful history” — that he manipulates collective memory for personal and political goals, as a means to “cloak himself and the Russian state with an additional mantle of legitimacy.” In the justifications for invading Ukraine, useful history is busy at work. As Putin tells it, it’s not an invasion but a reunification; it’s not a violation of international law but the return of lawful possessions that were wrested away when the Cold War ended.

There is an unsubtle progression to Putin’s historical interpretations . In July, the Russian president wrote that “true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia,” which is, to say the least, a peculiar definition of sovereignty. In his speech on Feb. 21, he went further, asserting that Ukraine “actually never had stable traditions of real statehood.” Three days later, with the invasion seeming inevitable, the threat was reversed; Ukraine didn’t need Russian assistance to survive, but it and its Western allies posed an existential threat to Russian survival, “to the very existence of our state and to its sovereignty.”

Putin incessantly denounces the U.S. or NATO interventions of the post-Cold War world — particularly in the Balkans, Libya, Iraq and Syria — as intolerable aggressions. In a 2013 New York Times op-ed , he warned against a U.S. strike on Syria, urging deference to the United Nations. “Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defense, or by the decision of the Security Council,” he wrote. No wonder that, when deploying force himself, from Chechnya at the turn of the century to Ukraine today, Putin reliably invokes national self-defense. “The current events have nothing to do with a desire to infringe on the interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” he stated on Feb. 24. “They are connected with defending Russia from those who have taken Ukraine hostage.” The formula is simple: When you swing it, it’s a sword; when I swing it, it’s a shield.

Putin relies on standard populist rhetoric to justify his attack on Ukraine — corrupt Ukrainian elites, beholden to foreign influences, are looting the country and turning the people against their Russian brethren, he claims — and he blithely combines World War II-era threats (Nazis overrunning Ukraine) with those of the Cold War (Ukraine acquiring nukes). Talk about useful history. But his speeches on the eve of invasion made his underlying preoccupation clear, with Putin expending enormous time and vitriol on the United States. He sneered at the “low cultural standards” and “feeling of absolute superiority” of post-Cold War America, while emphasizing the “empire of lies” in contemporary U.S. politics. In particular, he reminded the world that the United States employed “the pretext of allegedly reliable information” about weapons of mass destruction to invade Iraq. He did so even while warning that Ukraine, as a puppet regime of the West, might deploy WMDs (which it agreed to give up in 1994 in exchange for protection from Russian invasion) against Russia. “Acquiring tactical nuclear weapons will be much easier for Ukraine than for some other states I am not going to mention here,” he declared. “We cannot but react to this real danger.” It’s not his only American echo. Putin sounds downright Trumpy when warning that Russia will respond to any foreign interference in Ukraine, “and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history.”

It’s almost like, while invading Ukraine, he’s trolling Washington — because both are his targets.

Of course, the writings of a former KGB officer — or of any politician — should not be taken at face value; the purpose is to obscure as much as to reveal, the content is propaganda more than truth. Putin is a terrible communicator to begin with; according to “First Person,” his KGB instructors found him withdrawn and tight-lipped, and even his former wife understood him so poorly that, when he was proposing marriage, she thought he was breaking things off. But as with all political writing, propaganda is enlightening because it reveals something about how its purveyors wish to be perceived. Read in wartime, Putin’s accounts offer glimpses of the fighter he hopes the world will see in him, and the one he imagines himself to be.

Putin shares two stories in “First Person” that depict him as a risk-taker. He tells his interviewer that when he attended the KGB’s intelligence school, a supervisor noted his “lowered sense of danger” in one of his evaluations. “That was considered a very serious flaw,” Putin recalls. “You have to be pumped up in critical situations in order to react well. Fear is like pain. It’s an indicator. . . . I had to work on my sense of danger for a long time.” Message: He does not fear risk as ordinary people do.

He also recounts a time he was driving a car with a judo coach during his university days and saw a truck loaded with hay coming in the other direction. Putin reached out his window to grab some hay as he drove past, and he accidentally veered off course. “I turned the wheel sharply in the other direction,” Putin says, “and my rickety Zaporozhets went up on two wheels.” Somehow, they landed safely rather than crashing into a ditch. Only when they reached their destination did his astonished coach finally speak. “You take risks,” he said, and walked away. “What drew me to that truck?” Putin later wonders. “It must have been the sweet smell of the hay.” Message: Putin takes what he wants, regardless of the dangers to himself or others.

Yet a third story in “First Person,” from Putin’s childhood, places him in a less-daring light. There were rats in the apartment building where his family lived, and Putin and his friends would chase them with sticks. One day, he spotted a large rat and trapped it in a corner — but then it suddenly turned and jumped toward him. “I was surprised and frightened,” Putin recalls. “Now the rat was chasing me. It jumped across the landing and down the stairs. Luckily, I was a little faster and I managed to slam the door shut in its nose.” What’s the message here? That when Putin thinks he’s beaten a weaker foe, all it takes is his rival lashing out to get him to run away?

It’s an easy and tempting analogy. The apparent renewed unity of the transatlantic alliance against Putin’s assault on Ukraine, and the early resistance of Ukrainian forces and politicians, would seem to serve as a deterrent to a wider, longer war. But with Putin, it could just as well prompt further escalation. “If you become jittery, they will think that they are stronger,” he states in “First Person,” describing his attitude toward Russia’s enemies. “Only one thing works in such circumstances — to go on the offensive. You must hit first, and hit so hard that your opponent will not rise to his feet.”

For Putin, power must not be paralyzed. It must be wielded.

Carlos Lozada is The Post’s nonfiction book critic and the author of “What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era.” Follow him on Twitter and read his recent book reviews , including:

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