Russia Profile
February 5, 2008
Children of the Revolution
A New Generation of Russians Tries to Become Politically Active
By Yelena Biberman
“Each individual must rear himself – well at least as I have, for example… And in regard to the times – why should I be dependent on them? Better they depend on me,” declared Ivan Turgenev’s iconic Fathers and Sons character Yevgeny Bazarov. Bazarov voiced the attitude of a new generation, complete with confidence and defiance. However, at the end of the novel, the character succumbs to his tragic and arbitrary fate. “What passionate, sinful, rebellious heart has disappeared in the grave, the flowers growing on it serenely look at us with their innocent eyes: not only about eternal calmness of the ‘indifferent’ nature do they speak; they also speak of the perpetual reconciliation and about the endless life…,” reads the novel’s last sentence.
Life goes on. And seven generations later, a new Bazarov breed has ascended nature‘s throne. There is no consolidated youth force that represents real opposition to the established order in Russia. The young opponents of the existing regime are divided into various competing factions – from the radical communists to the liberal democrats, touting their alternative paths toward self-styled freedom and democracy. Yet they are a vital part of the democratic transition.
The origins of post-Soviet dissent
Hardship and subsequent disappointment with the reforms of the 1990s drove many to look for answers outside of the neoliberal model. And the Putin regime failed to either attract or assuage them.
“The years 1997 and 1998 were terrible for my family. My mother worked as a schoolteacher and did not receive pay for over six months; my father lost his job. We were going hungry, subsisting on whatever we could cultivate on our dacha plot. During those years I became disgusted by the capitalist, soulless Yeltsin administration,” said a member of the Nizhegorodsk branch of the radical communist youth organization Vanguard of Red Youth (AKM) who goes by the pseudonym Alexander Beria. Participants of political youth organizations, particularly the oppositional ones, often use pseudonyms to protect their identity. “With the coming of the new administration in 2000, not much has changed. I learned about AKM in 2002 when the organization was shown on television for the first time. The organization was depicted in a negative light, but, to me, it was a discovery. I started to look for a way to get in touch with AKM members. Last year I enrolled in a university and got Internet access. Finally, using the Internet, I was able to get in touch with AKM activists,” Beria said.
Eighteen-year-old AKM member Ilya Lyudogus also credits the Yeltsin era for planting the seeds of his dissent. “I became attracted to leftist ideology at a very young age. My family was very poor, especially during the 1990s. Sometimes we went hungry and there was a time when I had to steal potatoes and onions at the market. Then, as I became older, I started asking myself why some lived well while others didn’t. I saw many rich children who thought they were the center of the universe,” he explained.
The media and the Internet have played a large role in socializing and networking the opposition. “It all started when I watched a television program about the events of 1993. The program was shown at a time that I was in high school – a time when it was still possible to show such a program. I watched about the attack on the parliament, the beating up of the elderly by the OMON forces. This revolutionized my mind, and a person who only yesterday would have passionately tried to convince others to vote for Putin started to oppose him. And once I got access to the Internet, I started to learn about leftist youth organizations. The march against capitalism and other events of AKM attracted me to the organization. I got in touch with the head of the Ivanovsk wing of AKM. Gradually, I became more involved with the organization,” said 20-year-old Ilya Zhuravlev, who is now the leader of the Ivanovo AKM branch.
The stable economic growth secured by the Putin government has also opened up opportunities for some to devote themselves part-time to political activism. “I am materially well-off, I have a normal job and can afford to devote my free time to political activism,” said Alexander Tkachev, 32. “I founded the Altai Political Commune with a group of friends. Prior to it, I headed the Altai wing of the Communist Youth Union. I joined the Communist Youth Union in 1998, at the age of 22. What brought me to it was the realization of the inconsistency between what I was taught at my university’s political science department and the reality. The major event that actually opened my eyes was the 1996 presidential election, which was so dirty and inconsistent with all norms of freedom and democracy that I, who was never interested in communism before, started paying attention to it.”
Today’s political environment contributes its share to inspiring young activists to organize. “I joined AKM because I did not see any other alternative,” said Peter Khripunov, head of the Chelyabensk branch of AKM. “Look at our television and then look around the country. All you need is to drive 40 kilometers away from the city to see what’s really happening. During the past year in my village, I witnessed how all our five farms have disappeared without anything to replace them.”
“My decision to join Oborona was influenced by the fact that I did not intend and did not want to become a politician; I have many other interests. However, at a certain moment, I realized that the political situation in Russia does not satisfy me in any way, and that if I don’t do anything, my future and the future of my family and friends will suffer,” explained a 32-year-old regional leader of the non-partisan civic youth organization Oborona who asked to remain anonymous. “So I did not really have a choice but to join the organization. Membership in Oborona allows me to somehow influence the situation. At the same time, if things start getting better, I can always limit or stop my political activities.”
“What attracts me to the Communist Youth Union,” said the 20-year-old coordinator of the organization’s web site, who goes by the pseudonym Albert Viktorovich, “is the idea of free and quality education and health system as well as social guarantees.”
“I joined the Communist Youth Union after having been a member of the Communist Party for seven years. The party needs new members, which is why the youth branch was formed,” said 27-year-old Sergei Andreyanov from Perm.
Head of Penza youth wing of the Union of Right Forces (SPS) 23-year-old Anton Dashkin underscores that his organization is a sort of a “club.” “There are no mass protests involved. The organization offers educational activities (i.e. seminars, training) and discussion clubs, publishes brochures and booklets on topics related to youth,” he said. “The organization’s activities still center around elections and on the electorate. Our concrete goal is the liberal socialization of the new generation.”
“It’s hard to believe, but I could name all the major countries’ leaders even before I started school. Maybe it is because my childhood coincided with the period of perestroika. This is when my interest in politics was formed. My interest in politics may have remained on the theoretical level, however, if it was not for the ascent of Putin and the fundamental change in the country’s direction. My first sign that something was wrong was the closing down of NTV,” said Yelina Tokarevich, a member of the youth division of the Yabloko Party. Tokarevich said that it was her experience of witnessing a Yabloko protest in St. Petersburg in support of NTV that inspired her to join the organization.
A space of their own
Yelena Omelchenko, Russia’s leading youth sociologist and the director of the Region research center at the Ulyanovsk State University, divides youth movements into the “official” (those organized from the top) and the “amateur.” The former exercises direct political influence, according to Omelchenko, since this was the very purpose of their formation.
Twenty-seven-year-old Nashi member Nikita Borovikov said that this is why he decided to be a part of the Kremlin-funded youth movement. “In Nashi, I saw a real opportunity to do something good,” he explained, adding that he was attracted to Nashi’s “interest in seeing me succeed since my personal success is now directly tied to that of my country.”
Andrei Zverev, an associate professor of social communications and technologies at the Russian State University for the Humanities, agreed with Omelchenko that youth movements and organizations such as Nashi matter a lot. He points out that Nashi was created by the Russian president to “neutralize the emerging radical oppositional youth movements” and to counteract the forces of “colored revolutions.” It was recognized as a significant political force by the United Russia party to the point that the party was forced to make “a strategic alliance” with members of Nashi so that the latter would help link the party with important student activists. In return, United Russia offered Nashi spots in its list of State Duma candidates.
Nashi is also known for organizing an annual summer camp on Lake Seliger, in the Tver Region, for pro-Putin youth movements. The event features the brightest political and pop idols, such as Dmitry Medvedev and Russian rock singer Zemfira.
The “amateur” youth movements, on the other hand, indirectly impact politics through their influence on the “general cultural background and societal well-being,” Omelchenko says. Though, she admits, that influence is multidirectional.
Individualism, orientation toward personal over collective success and pragmatism make today’s youth movements distinct from those of the Soviet era, Omelcheko said. At the same time, the concept of “youth” is made complex by the contemporary reality. “Youth is becoming a global market brand, a life-style of people from various age-groups, incomes and professional strata,” she explained.
Nevertheless, the late sociologist Yury Levada predicted that the most active generational cohort over the next five to seven years will be made up of those who were born between the years 1982 and 1989. And while these individuals have not been socialized by the Soviet system, Omelchenko discovered through her studies that these “young pragmatics” still demand a “strong, authoritarian rule” and are generally ready “to take orders from the top.”
Zverev sees the opposition movements’ influence as mostly local, although he is quick to point out two celebrity activists – Ilya Yashin (leader of the youth Yabloko wing) and Maria Gaidar (founder of the youth movement “DA!”). Both Yashin and Gaidar have become nationally recognized public figures. In December 2007, Yashin even announced his candidacy to the highest post of the Yabloko Party.
Youth movements face three other big dilemmas, Zverev argues. First, the government has started to pay more attention to them since the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, in which youth played a vital force. Second, most of the major youth organizations target university students, “the future intellectual elite of the country.” Those who are enrolled in higher education programs below the university level are therefore more exposed to the extremist programs. Finally, most of the Russian youth is apolitical. Omelchenko’s own surveys found that only three to four percent of Russian youth are interested in politics.
Democracy through pluralism
Given all this, those who make up youth movements and organizations of non-extremist opposition are a particularly resilient breed. And in today’s harsh political environment, they are especially critical to bringing about evolutionary progress.
“The youth needs to have its own independent, adult-free space, its own cultural territory,” Omelchenko said. “When you don’t see any nonconformists on the streets, whether they are absent or just hiding, it means that there is a problem with democracy in that city, in that country. That instead of pluralism, only one culture and one ideology reigns on that territory.”