Most modern states have moved away from public humiliation and torture as a method of control. But Russia has gone the other way.

Under Putin, one’s past on the streets — which in the Soviet Union was hardly a point of pride — turned into a mark of heroic masculinity.

Why are some Russians willing to give up comfort for the sake of victory over a propaganda-fabricated enemy?

The carnival of violence that has for years permeated Russia's state-controlled media has in recent months given way to a new tone of solemnity and calls...