Summed up nicely. But now they will get some sobering up.

I have little faith that Russian society is going to come out of this war any better. It's a cultural thing. Germany had to be razed to the ground by am external force and millions of Germans had to be killed for the society to ditch militarism. And Russia has nukes.

I guess the question comes down to who is responsible for one's own sanity. The individual, the community, or the state? Anyways, I would argue that attributing Putin's popularity to brainwashing is not that solid of a theory. Perhaps Putin is popular because Russians want a strong leader in the wake of previous leader who were seen as weak.

We can't know without better introspection and data to ground the discussion.