Some post-Soviet Russian films explore how the loss of so many men during WW2 created a fatherless generation subsequently. Much has been made about soldiers themselves coming back with PTSD, and how women who stayed behind in the West found a new identity with work and so on. The effect of an absence is harder to depict and draw conclusions from, but I’ve been told the KGB scouted recruits directly from orphanages. Easier to manipulate someone who longs for a parental connection, or lacks one that would instill a morality to resist the actions required of a KGB agent. Unfortunately, many such children were available after that war, and now will be again in Ukraine.