Olesha on the war

Telegram posts

On April 4, 2022, on his Telegram channel, Aleksey wrote about Bucha:

The news coming out of Bucha is simply unimaginable horror, even against the backdrop of this «special operation.» The real, skeletal face of war, in all its inhumanity, vile cruelty, and malice... Deep down, you want to believe that an army pinning St. George ribbons on itself during wartime couldn't commit such acts. People wearing a sacred symbol on their uniform whose primary purpose is to remember the price of shed blood—they couldn't possibly do this, right? ... At moments like this, it becomes far clearer how, even under total and rampant domestic censorship, people choose to blindly trust the words of their government, which have been thoroughly saturated with lies for decades.

He commented on missile strikes hitting Polish territory with sarcasm regarding a "preemptive strike":

I watched «All Quiet on the Western Front» today, only to open the news right after and learn that our «high-precision» missiles are now landing in Poland as well. Another preemptive strike, I take it? If a full-scale war with NATO awaits us too, then before heading to the front lines, I strongly suggest watching that film—so you harbor no childish illusions about war being about valor, honor, and courage. War is death.

On the one-year anniversary of the war, the blogger wrote an emotional piece on the devastating fallout of the invasion, the degradation of the Russian political system, and his hope for change:

War is absolute evil. A year ago, I woke up in a country where even such a self-evident truth is called into question... The country is plunging into an abyss of gloom, poverty, and lawlessness... Everyone in our country knows the name of the murderer whose hands are covered in blood up to his shoulders. Even those who mistakenly consider him «theirs»—I am certain his image subconsciously formed in the mind of anyone reading this description, without any hints... The future of the country rests with people who are ambitious, humane, and intelligent, who want to do things right... I believe they will be able to rebuild everything from scratch, even if they have to start from nothing.

On the second anniversary of the invasion, Olesha wrote about the cynical disregard of the Russian leadership toward human casualties:

In the pragmatic, callous, calculating dungeons of the Kremlin, the answer to the question: «Are several hundred thousand dead souls worth the territorial and diplomatic gains achieved?»—that answer, on the contrary, would be brief and unequivocal: «Yes.» The same answer would meet any death toll: a million, or millions more. In their game, people are merely raw material. A kind of coal burning in the flames of war...

Livestream statements on the war

In August 2024, Olesha hosted a stream discussing the situation in Kursk Oblast, military mobilization, and the position of "apolitical" content creators. Among his most poignant remarks were:

Commenting on strikes inside Russia: «This is what war looks like... and the people who start these wars are utterly depraved bastards who do not deserve their government offices.

Regarding the plea from Sudzha residents to the president: «Putin doesn't give a damn, and none of his subordinates give a damn. All those pretending to fight for Russians and the Russian-speaking population, who throw around phrases like 'our boys, our girls, our citizens'—they give even less of a damn. They pretend they care only so that under the guise of this pity, this protection, they can push their own agenda. For instance, why did we start the war? To protect the Russian-speaking population, never mind that half of that very Russian-speaking population perished in the course of this war... This will continue as long as these people remain in power...

Did you see those billboards: 'Kherson with Russia forever'? Then it turns out it wasn't forever, and then the most telling thing happens: right after, Russian missiles start hammering Kherson, hitting those very same people who were 'with Russia forever,' whom we were supposedly 'saving.' That is hypocrisy in plain sight. Only from the state's perspective, it's cold calculation—they couldn't care less about the people of Kherson, or the Russian-speaking population, or the Ukrainian-speaking population. They are pursuing their own goals to cling to power as long as possible under the pretext that there is an external threat and they are the only ones who can protect everyone.

Regarding apolitical bloggers: «They constantly pretend they're completely apolitical, like 'I'm neither for Putin nor his opponents, I'm just on my own.' Yet for some reason, they find it remarkably convenient to parrot every state propaganda talking point one way or another. Pick a side—either you're genuinely out of it, or you stand somewhere. But they just keep dodging and wiggling their asses...» (citing streamers Bratishkin and Stint as examples).

Olesha is one of the few Russian streamers who openly and consistently opposes the war, boldly denouncing Russian state propaganda and Kremlin leadership.