We have anxiety everywhere for young people – Newspaper Kommersant No. 209 (7410) dated 11/11/2022

On Thursday, the MIA Rossiya Segodnya hosted a round table discussion titled The Role of Youth in Supporting a Special Military Operation (SVO), organized by the Expert Institute for Social Research. All its young participants agreed that the youth of the NWO supports: some by rejecting Western brands, some by volunteering, and some by information. At the same time, sociologists argue that young Russians are less likely to approve of hostilities than their older compatriots. In this regard, the political scientist recalls that in Soviet times there were also Komsomol activists and informals, but the majority of young people were conformists.

“Young people love challenges and obviously the West has challenged them. But everyone quickly realized that instead of Nike, you can wear Forward and Bosco, and instead of Zara, you can wear Austin,” Ilya Geraskin, an analyst at the Center for Current Politics, cheerfully began. In his opinion, young people support the NWO, as they oppose discrimination against Russians by the West, understand that hostilities were inevitable, and support the thesis of President Vladimir Putin that “if a fight is inevitable, then you must strike first.” “SVO killed the deep infantilism and conformist attitude of the young. They can no longer stay away from common problems, ”the expert assured. And towards the end of the discussion, he developed this thesis: “Under the current Putin generation, young people have not shown themselves so zealously … They are now creating an example for the future and a reserve for future generations, how to show teeth in difficult times and achieve state goals.”

“Despite the fact that in the youth environment the attitude towards CBO is somewhat different than among older people, and despite the pacifism inherent in young people, the consequences of pressure from the West and simply disrespect for the personality of each specific person and consumer of a particular brand … formed a response among the young reaction: if you are like that, then we will be the same, ”the head of the State Duma Committee on Youth Affairs Artem Metelev (“United Russia”), who spoke about the volunteer action “We are together”, picked up the idea.

Yunarmiya representative Serafim Ivanov mainly talked about how volunteers and citizen journalists help the inhabitants of the new Russian territories. In his story, there was a place for a certain journalist from Belgorod, who arrived in Kherson and covered a 16-year-old girl with his body while crossing from the right bank of the Dnieper to the left (both remained alive).

Young representatives of the parliamentary opposition, in their attitude to the SVO and volunteering, predictably turned out to be not in opposition. “When a volunteer comes, a spark ignites in the eyes of older people who live in the liberated territories. They feel that the state is next to them, that they will be helped, that they are not abandoned, ”said Dmitry Matyushenkov, member of the coordinating council of the LDPR youth organization, pathetically. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Council of the A Just Russia – For Truth party for work with youth, dedicated her speech to party members who went to the front as volunteers or mobilization, and ended with a conversation about information work. “Young people very often … do not always believe official reports, it is important for them to hear what their peers think … We conduct conversations with students, patriotic quizzes,” she noted.

“1419 comments were given to the media. This is a large number, considering that there are several dozen people in the club. They work daily. Made more than 2.5 thousand publications in social networks. We also did analytical work. They created a platform on Zen, there are more than 150 publications… The total coverage of this work amounted to more than 50 million people,” political scientist Zaurbek Khugaev reported on the achievements of the Digoria expert club on the information front.

It should be noted that, although all the participants in the discussion spoke about the support of the SVO by young people, according to sociologists, in this age group the approval of hostilities is still lower than the national average. Thus, according to a poll by the FOM conducted from March 18 to 20, 73% of Russians considered the decision to conduct SVO to be the right one in general, and only 59% in the category of 18-30 years old. And according to the Russian Field poll (September 29 – October 1), 46% of respondents in Russia as a whole are in favor of continuing the CBO, but in the groups of 18-26 years and 27-34 years, the majority (59% and 53%, respectively) spoke in favor of the transition to peace negotiations.

Political scientist Alexei Makarkin believes that sociology is unlikely to have changed much by November, since the “crystallization of public opinion” took place in early March. In general, young people perceive what is happening more skeptically than the older generation, show less enthusiasm and emotional involvement, and would like the hostilities to end in negotiations, the expert notes. “A significant part of the youth steps aside, but if they are given a choice, then they are more for their own. Despite globalization and westernization, there is a desire to be with our people, to identify with Russia, as in sports competitions,” explains Mr. Makarkin. He also recalls that among young people there are representatives of completely different views: “Like in Soviet times, there was the Komsomol and its activists, and there was the so-called informal youth. And the majority in reality were conformists.

Andrey Vinokurov