“It was forever until it ended. The last Soviet generation

“I belong to the generation of those people who were born back in the Soviet Union. But whose childhood and first memories date back to the post-Soviet period.
Growing up, we discovered that our post-Soviet childhood was spent on the ruins of some bygone civilization.

This manifested itself in the material world as well - huge unfinished construction sites on which we loved to play, the buildings of closed factories that beckon all the district children, incomprehensible worn symbolism on the buildings.

However, it cannot be said that the Soviet era was left to post-Soviet children for independent study. On the contrary, there were many willing to tell about the "horrors of Sovietism" to those who could not face them due to their early age. We were told about the horrors of equalization and communal life - as if now the housing issue has been resolved. About the "dullness" of Soviet people, a meager assortment of clothes - how much more picturesque are people in the same tracksuits, and, in general, it's not clothes that make a person beautiful. Nightmarish biographies of the leaders of the revolution were told (though even through all the dirt poured on the same Dzerzhinsky, the image of a strong man who really devoted his life to the struggle for a cause that he considered right appeared).

And most importantly, we have seen that the post-Soviet reality is totally inferior to the Soviet reality. And in the material world - numerous trade tents could not replace the great construction sites of the past and space exploration. And, most importantly, in the non-material world. We saw the level of post-Soviet culture: the books and films that this reality gave birth to. And we compared this with Soviet culture, about which we were told that it was stifled by censorship, and many creators were persecuted. We wanted to sing songs and read poetry. “Humanity wants songs. / A world without songs is uninteresting.” We wanted a meaningful, fulfilling life, not reducible to animal existence.

The post-Soviet reality, offering a huge assortment for consumption, could not offer anything from this semantic menu. But we felt that there was something meaningful and strong-willed in the bygone Soviet reality. Therefore, we did not really believe those who talked about the "horrors of Sovietism."

Now those who told us about the nightmarish life in the USSR say that the modern Russian Federation is moving towards the Soviet Union and is already at the end of this path. How funny and bitter we hear this! We see how great is the difference between the socialist reality of the Soviet Union and the criminal capitalist reality of the Russian Federation.

But we understand why we are told about the horrors of Putinism by those who used to talk about the horrors of Stalinism. The speakers, consciously or not, are working for those who want to deal with the post-Soviet reality in the same way that they dealt with the Soviet one before. Only this number will not work. You taught us to hate. Hatred for your country, history, ancestors. But they only taught distrust. It seems to me that this distrust is the only decisive advantage of the Russian Federation.

Those who grew up in post-Soviet Russia are different from the naive late Soviet society. You managed to deceive our parents during the perestroika years. But we do not believe you and will do everything to make your idea fail a second time. We will correct the sick, imperfect Russian state for something good and fair, aimed at development. I hope that this will be a renewed Soviet Union and your exclamations about Russia "rolling down to the USSR" will finally have a real basis.

Oh, time, Soviet time ...
As you remember - and warm in the heart.
And you scratch your head thoughtfully:
Where did this time go?
The morning greeted us with coolness,
The country rose with glory,
What else did we need
What the hell, sorry?
You could get drunk on a ruble
Ride the subway for a penny,
And lightning shone in the sky,
Flashing lighthouse of communism…
And we were all humanists,
And anger was alien to us,
And even filmmakers
Loved each other back then...
And women gave birth to citizens,
And Lenin illuminated their path,
Then these citizens were imprisoned,
Planted and those who planted.
And we were the center of the universe
And we built for centuries.
Members waved to us from the podium...
Such a native Central Committee!
Cabbage, potatoes and lard,
Love, Komsomol and Spring!
What did we miss?
What a lost country!
We changed the awl to soap,
Prison exchanged for a mess.
Why do we need someone else's tequila?
We had a wonderful Cognac!"

In the non-material world, in the world of culture, the relics of a bygone era manifested themselves no less strongly. On the children's shelves, D'Artagnan and Peter Blood were accompanied by Pavka Korchagin. At first, he seemed to be a representative of a world as alien and distant as the French musketeer and the British pirate. But the reality asserted by Korchagin received confirmation in other books and turned out to be quite recent, ours. Traces of this bygone era were found everywhere. "Scratch a Russian - you will find a Tatar"? Not sure. But it turned out that if you scratched the Russian, you would definitely find the Soviet.
Post-Soviet Russia abandoned its own experience of development for the sake of entering Western civilization. But this civilizational shell was roughly stretched over our historical foundation. Having not received the creative support of the masses, coming into conflict with something fundamental and irrevocable, here and there it could not stand it and was torn. Through these gaps, the surviving core of a fallen civilization appeared. And we studied the USSR as archaeologists study ancient civilizations.

However, it cannot be said that the Soviet era was left to post-Soviet children for independent study. On the contrary, there were many willing to tell about the "horrors of Sovietism" to those who could not face them due to their early age. We were told about the horrors of equalization and communal life - as if now the housing issue has been resolved. About the “dullness” of Soviet people, a meager assortment of clothes - how much more picturesque are people in the same tracksuits, and, in general, it’s not clothes that make a person beautiful. Nightmarish biographies of the leaders of the revolution were told (though even through all the dirt poured on the same Dzerzhinsky, the image of a strong man who really devoted his life to the struggle for a cause that he considered right appeared).

“Each period has its own person who defines it,” noted Yuri Levada, a well-known Russian sociologist and public opinion researcher, at one of his public lectures.

The very ideologeme of the Soviet man, according to the director of the Levada Center Lev Gudkov, originated in the 1920s and 1930s and was necessary for the construction of a socialist social system. Such mythologems are characteristic of all totalitarian societies in the early stages of their development. And if in Nazi Germany and Italy the full development of man did not take place due to the fact that the regimes did not last long, then the Soviet Union gave rise to more than one generation of people of a new type.

It turns out that the correct Soviet person does not represent himself or anything else outside the state.

It focuses on control and reward from the state, which covers all aspects of its existence. At the same time, he expects that he will be cheated, deceived, and not given enough, which is why he shirks his duties, hacks and steals. He is suspicious in everything that concerns the "new" and "other", distrustful, passive, pessimistic, envious and anxious. A typical Soviet person is individually irresponsible, inclined to shift the blame for his position onto others - the government, deputies, officials, bosses, Western countries, visitors, etc., but not on himself. He develops a total phobia and dislike for everything new, alien and foreign.

In such a scheme, the relationship between the state and the individual is a sophisticated symbiosis.

Formally, the authorities take care of him, provide him with work, housing, pensions, education and medicine. He, in turn, maintains power, performs a patriotic duty and protects the interests of the state.

However, both sides evade their declared obligations, and as a result, the state leaves a person on the verge of poverty and survival, and he, in turn, steals and shirks in every possible way.

Since 2010 psychologists under the guidance of Doctor of Psychology Vlada Pishchik conducted a series of studies and found out how the mentality of the Soviet, transitional and post-Soviet generations differs from a psychological point of view. The study involved three groups of subjects. The post-Soviet generation includes those born in 1990-1995, the generation of the transitional period includes those born in 1980-1985 and 1960-1965. Psychologists referred to the Soviet generation those born in wartime, in 1940-1945. A total of 2235 people took part in the study.

After analyzing the results of psychological questionnaires, scientists concluded that a Soviet citizen who lived in an atmosphere of collectivism is characterized by such cultural values as “loyalty to traditions”, “openness”, “cordiality”, “discipline”, “respect for authority”. The transitional generation tends to the so-called horizontal individualism. Among its pronounced parameters are “soulfulness”, “disunity”, “independence”, “distrust of power”, “love of freedom”, “anarchy”, “coldness”, “rivalry”.

First of all, these are people with unsatisfied needs for freedom and autonomy, security and recognition, and dissatisfied with their position in society.

They experience existential anxiety from the realization of the finiteness of their own lives and find it difficult to define themselves. According to psychologists, the feeling of their own real or imaginary inferiority leads to the emergence of such traits as touchiness and vulnerability to others, intolerance to the shortcomings of others, exactingness, irascibility and aggressiveness.

For the post-Soviet generation, family, altruistic and communicative meanings are leading. For transitional generations - existential, cognitive, meanings of pleasure and self-realization.

Family and existential meanings turned out to be the main ones among the representatives of the Soviet generation.

Transitional generations in relations are characterized by dominance, intransigence, stubbornness and coldness. Representatives of the Soviet generation, in turn, are more demanding, self-confident, more responsive and at the same time stubborn.

According to the assessment of ethnic tolerance, the transitional generations had the lowest scores; above average tolerance to the complexity and uncertainty of the surrounding world; the average scores expressed tolerance for other views, deviations from generally accepted norms and non-authoritarianism. The Soviet generation, on the other hand, received low scores for tolerance for deviations from generally accepted norms, for other views and non-authoritarianism; average scores - for ethnic tolerance; above average - in tolerance for the complexity and uncertainty of the surrounding world.

In a study of the characteristics of statements and ideas about one's own "I" in different generations, psychologists found that most of the statements of representatives of the transitional and Soviet generations have signs of group dependence.

Among the representatives of the post-Soviet generation, 60% of statements are independent of the group. It follows from this that the ideas about one's "I" in the Soviet and transitional generations directly depend on the opinion of the collective.

The crisis will affect grandchildren and great-grandchildren

The grandparents of those now in their 30s have survived war, famine, poverty and unemployment. They were forced to start everything from scratch, and therefore stability and confidence in the future occupied leading positions in their value system.

A number of researchers, in particular family psychologist Lyudmila Petranovskaya, believe that wars, deportations, repressions, crises become historical traumas for people, the consequences of which are eroded only by the third or fourth generation.

Thus, the perestroika of the 1990s and the general atmosphere of instability were reflected in the uncertainty and helplessness of those people whose early and middle adulthood fell on this period. And the lack of psychological security led to the fact that adolescents of the early 1990s more often, in comparison with subsequent generations, show helplessness, anxiety and social passivity.

However, it cannot be said that the Soviet era was left to post-Soviet children for independent study. On the contrary, there were many willing to tell about the "horrors of Sovietism" to those who could not face them due to their early age. We were told about the horrors of equalization and communal life - as if now the housing issue has been resolved. About the “dullness” of Soviet people, a meager assortment of clothes - how much more picturesque are people in the same tracksuits, and, in general, it’s not clothes that make a person beautiful. Nightmarish biographies of the leaders of the revolution were told (though even through all the dirt poured on the same Dzerzhinsky, the image of a strong man who really devoted his life to the struggle for a cause that he considered right appeared).

On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, and the USSR was gone. This day was not only the beginning of an era of freedom, choice and new opportunities, but also a time of deep upheaval, impenetrable poverty and rampant organized crime.

Journalist Natalya Vasilyeva, who grew up among many other children at that time and entered the first generation after the collapse of the USSR, recalls the days of her childhood. When the Soviet Union ceased to exist, Natalya was 7 years old. She describes what life was like for her generation - a generation of children born in the USSR but raised after its collapse.

In August 1991, tanks drove into the central streets of Moscow. My mother's first reaction was anxiety and fear, she immediately remembered the accounts of the Bolshevik revolution, which she had once read about. "This is scary!" she told me, a 7-year-old girl who had just started elementary school. But the coup failed, as was announced a few days later.

The family of Natalia Vasilyeva listens to Gorbachev's resignation speech, 1991.

For my parents, the world of Cold War ideology and pervasive government control soon dissolved into social upheaval, poverty, and violence. But there were also new political freedoms and, eventually, new opportunities. Such was the post-Soviet Russia in which my generation grew up.

In the early years of Yeltsin's rule, a wave of crime swept over Moscow. Those scenes from the film Once Upon a Time in America that my brother and I watched on a pirated videotape were not much different from what was happening on the street at that time. The corner, literally a block from our house, has become a favorite gathering place for all sorts of gangs and brothers. All night long loud bangs were heard - sometimes it was the silencer of an old car, but more often shots from pistols.

Natalia with her brother a few months after the collapse of the USSR.

Natalia with her grandmother, 1992

Two men sell clothes and shoes at a kiosk.

Moscow schoolchildren sell bottled Pepsi-Cola to motorcyclists, May 1992.

Market in Moscow, 1992.

My parents did their best to protect me from the economic situation in the country, but I remember well the queues in stores, cheap plastic dolls for birthdays, I remember how happy my mother was when she was presented with a pack of sugar cubes.

Four years after the collapse of the USSR - Natalia and her father vote in the parliamentary elections, December 1995.

Hundreds of young people wait for the Levi Strauss and Co store to open its doors in February 1993.

Natalia with her grandfather and brother in Pushkino, 1995.