My name is Polina and I
was born on December 31st, 1999 in the
Krasnoyarsk region. I like the fact that I
was born on a special day. I’m eighteen - Putin has
been in power for 18 years. I went to school
- he was there. I finished school - he was there.
He’s been there an eternity. Our President Vladimir
Vladimirovich has helped the country to believe that we’re not just a leftover
but a worthy successor to the Soviet Union, a worthy successor to the Russian Empire, a worthy representative
of the Russian spirit, which has always distinguished
our nation from other nations. My name is Andrey Nasyrov, I’m a student in the Faculty of Journalism
at the Moscow Polytechnic University. My name is Kamilla,
I’m in the 11th grade. I’m interested in politics and activism. In our country you can die
from everything that’s going on. Everything has been
destroyed - from the economy to the benches outside
residential buildings. For me,
Putin and his gang are to blame. Everyone calls them that,
because they’re a gang of crooks who have
taken power. They divide up the
money however they want. They’re involved
in killings. They’re a criminal organization
who use threats, murder and forgery to take over companies
and put people in prison. They’re not just kleptomaniacs,
they are real criminals. Events take place here that
haven’t been officially approved, organized by the opposition
politician Alexei Navalny. He’s well-known from his revelations
about corruption in Russia. Last time it was demonstration against
the raising of the retirement age. I went with my friends. We pushed forward towards the
police taking the barriers with us. We were in the second row.
There was a terrible commotion. There was a brutal
fight with the police. Of course, I was really afraid.
I don’t know if I’ll do it again. If I’ll have
the courage to. Our society is
very conservative. We still live with many patterns
left over from the Soviet era. My mother builds satellites,
my father recycles atom bombs. There are two
factories in our city. In one they build satellites,
in the other they recycle the insides
of atom bombs. I didn’t bring it with me specially,
it’s always in my backpack. My pass for the city,
everyone has one. My home town is fenced
round with barbed wire. I’ve often crawled through
it where there were holes. The last time,
the police caught me. There are checkpoints at the entrances.
It’s not a city. It’s what’s called a
closed autonomous area. And it’s all surrounded
by a barbed wire fence. My name is Taya, I’m 18 years
old, born on December 31st 1999. My name is Egor, also born on December
31, 1999. We’re twins. Our generation doesn’t know how
life could be any different. We’ve lived our entire
lives under Putin. It’s hard when you have
nothing to compare it with. What else can we do?
Either protest or emigrate. Yes, exactly. I don’t feel much like
living in this country. -Me either.
-At least under Putin. With his followers he’s built
up a system of corruption. He’s been sitting up there so long,
there’s not much you can change. We don’t have a democracy,
we have a monarchy. An important goal in my life -
it’s actually a dream of mine - is not to remain just some
insignificant person in history, but to be remembered. There are lots of different routes,
just see one and take it. Like Napoleon said,
it is better not to live, than to leave
behind no legacy. You don’t have to be
like Hitler and Napoleon, who left the world
in a bloodbath. You should be like
Vladimir Vladimirovich, who fights for peace and is prepared
to do everything to achieve it. He says: “We’ll find them at the airport
or wherever and kill them. We will totally
annihilate evil." His character has helped the president
to make it possible for Russia not only to get up off its
knees, but to gather courage. And he’s shown there
is an opposing pole, which can determine the conditions
for maintaining the world order. I don’t like anything
in my home town. I don‘t see anything that
makes me feel good about it. What makes me different from my parents?
I don’t know. I believe the most important
thing is freedom of thought. My parents lived in a time when
they were told what to think. They tried to bring everyone
down to the same level. You’re wrong there, Polina. You’re right,
we were told what to think and say. But there were kitchens
where people sat, and thought about things
and discussed everything. Yes, but you still believe that
women have no place in politics and that homosexuals are
sick and need to be healed. I don’t have
those prejudices. My parents watch the news on
television and not on the internet. They don’t have the same access
to freedom of opinion that I have, because they’re not
interested in that. It’s true, in those days I didn’t know
any other opinions in our closed city. I was happy to have been
born in the Soviet Union, to belong to the Pioneers,
to live in such a good town. We lived with a secure
feeling about the future. I go to an English
high school. My favorite subjects are English and
German. I want to be a translator. It’s a profession you can
pursue in different directions. I’ve been to Austria,
once to France and to Finland as well. For me the most interesting
trip was to Austria. We had an exchange
program at school. The kids our age seemed
to be more grown-up there. That’s because of the mentality.
You can’t say that about us. I felt they were more
responsible than us. I finished ninth grade and
went to a vocational school. I’m training to be a cook.
The course takes three years. Then I’ll be called up to
do my military service. I don’t feel like doing it,
but I’ll have to. When I leave the army,
I’ll have to see what exactly I do then. We cut the onions lengthwise. Cut them lengthwise.
Stop. OK. This is how
we cut them. I’m not going to school at the moment,
I’ve started having lessons at home. Over the years I’ve had a lot of
stressful situations at school. Even at the end there was a
conflict with my schoolmates. For some years now I’ve
been bullied at school. But in some ways
it’s my own fault. First I worked for Navalny as a volunteer.
Not everybody was okd with that. Then some didn’t like
the photos I posted. Our last argument
was ridiculous. We fell out over the use of
gender-specific job-titles. I’m being bullied,
because I’m the bulliable type. Our society is a nation of
harassed and insecure people. That’s a historical development from the
Soviet era after all that repression. The people were exterminated,
shot, left to starve. And after that we all became so
insecure. We're afraid to say anything. We respect neither
ourselves nor others. What is our
research about? Trying to understand what prevents
our journalists from establishing an information policy that
creates an intellectual atmosphere which promotes innovation.
Not because Putin demands innovation. Incidentally, Putin is in
this regard very pessimistic. Nasyrov, why do we have to
become an innovative society? Many states are already
post-industrial societies, and unfortunately people regard
Russia as backward in this respect, which I don't
agree with. A mighty state like
Russia could be destroyed if the young generation aren’t interested
in the development of the country. It’s ruined if its
history is destroyed, if the young generation have
the wrong ideals and views. Which to some extent we see around
us today. It‘s good you see that. Yes. The main enemy of our
liberals are the Americans. America only wants one thing: that we
die, simply bite the dust and fall apart into
twenty separate countries. Or even better, fifty countries, so that all that’s
left of Russia is a geographical
name. I don’t want that, and I don’t want you
to want it either. I don’t want that. Nothing good
will come of it. You can see that from the
situation with Georgia and Ukraine, where you have fascists, nationalists
and idiots running around with guns. Understood, Nasyrov? I’m interested in lots of things;
journalism, political activism, art. That’s a poster for the
memorial march for Nemtsov, the opposition leader who
was murdered four years ago in front of the Kremlin. I had the idea of comparing my
childhood with the childhoods of
my grandmother and my mother. My grandmother’s childhood fell in
the time of what’s called the Thaw. That was a period after
the death of Stalin, when Khrushchev came to power and
repression gave way to a milder regime. Stalin’s personality cult was debunked.
Life became easier. My mother’s childhood fell in the
time of Perestroika and the 90s - that means democracy,
freedom. I asked her what she
had felt in those days. She said: the air smelled of freedom. My childhood is in a lull.
A political lull. Nothing is clear at the international
level either, no prospects. Here is the list of events
that occurred in my childhood: terrorist attacks, political repression,
the murder of homosexuals in Chechnya. I believe our government
acted wrongly in many cases. In my opinion, Putin is also
behind the murder of Nemtsov. The killers and the
one who gave the order can be traced
back to Chechnya. It’s highly likely that there
was a secret order from Putin. For me, that’s what the
Putin regime is like. They chanted:
“Putin is a thief!“ I went to the Navalny
demo on Putin’s birthday. That’s me with
my friend. I’m against Putin’s policies,
that was the reason. It was my first demonstration.
I wanted to experience the atmosphere. At school they forbid us
to attend such events. Even when you’re eighteen and want
to defend your rights as a citizen. You don’t want Putin to be
president, you like Navalny. You want to go to the
demo, to help. But at school you have
to sign a piece of paper saying that you won’t
attend such rallies. Good luck.
Call me, OK? I can’t. Call me. Don’t expect
me to call. I didn’t move to Moscow only for the great educational
opportunities here. The best thing about being here
is that nobody cares about me. No one interferes
in my life. Do you think we
need the pumps? You need a round
glass flask. I’m a student at the
First Medical University. The subject is called
medical biochemistry. My degree certificate will say
‘Physician for Biochemistry’. I plan to go into the sciences,
that’s where I see my fulfilment. My parents pay for the student dormitory.
I share this with two other students. The bed is my entire living space.
The table next to it serves as a shelf. The suitcase on the floor
takes the place of a bookcase. It’s jam packed full of books
that I can’t store anywhere else. I sleep in bed, eat in bed,
study, read, play the guitar. I do everything here,
in these two square meters. In Russia there are many
who are disadvantaged. Women’s interests aren’t respected,
the rights of homosexuals are infringed. Of course, I want to contribute to ending
all discrimination so that everyone has equal rights,
and we can all live in one big utopia. But I’m not going to stand around
here holding a rainbow flag, because I know I’d
be beaten to death. Today I’ve come for the
memorial march for Nemtsov. That’s very
important for me. I couldn’t imagine that
in the 21st century, in a democratic country there could
be a political contract killing. I thought it
was impossible. As a politician Nemtsov
had millions of followers. A wonderful poster! I didn’t get your head.
No, that was bad. This is better. What a wonderful poster! Do you have classmates
who think like you? Yes, a few. But they’re not here? Probably not. I welcome the contestants and guests
to the Russian Kudo Championship. We will now hear the
Russian national anthem. Please get ready: Andrey Nasyrov. I lost. I must have
had the wrong mindset. I couldn’t control
my emotions. Funny if it doesn’t
cover the old color. Funny and tragic.
Then we’d have to dye it black. -Or shave it all off.
-I’ve been through that. I’m not going to the
graduation dance bald. I didn’t have a plan for
the graduation dance, because I didn’t know what
sort of dress would suit me. So annoying. And then I decided
to go back to my natural color, and take out
the piercing. You’ve become more grown-up. More grown-up? I don’t know about that. The exhibition is about
mother-daughter relationships. I had more problems
with my father: I was never good enough,
and probably never will be. That really
depresses me. It’s hard for me to love myself,
and feel that I‘m good enough, that I don’t have to
prove anything to anyone. This is what they
say about us: "This generation is hopeless,
the girls have lost their morals." Everything about us is bad. We’re
calculating. We only want men’s money. We’re just hoping for some mythical
man, with a huge fortune. They see us as dolls,
who can’t do anything right. I don’t seek my
way as a woman. I seek self-fulfilment as a human
being, as an individual. I’ve found my way in life.
I’m regarded as gifted. The people I work with say I will go far. We begin the ceremony
with the presentation of certificates to the 2018 high
school graduates. A symbolic bell, which marks
not the beginning of the lesson, but the end
of school. This graduation certificate
is for Cheredeyeva Taissia. I wish you success
in everything you do. Peter the Great and
Catherine the Great. Let’s welcome the tsar and the
empress as they open the ceremony. You can’t fit much
meat in there. No, we fill it with buckwheat. I’m now in my third year of
training, in the last semester. At the moment I’m
doing an internship. Soon there’ll be the cooking exam and
the final assignment at the school. For my final assignment I’ve
chosen the dish ‘suckling pig’. It’s a festive dish that used
to be served to the tsars. I chose suckling pig because
I thought it sounded awesome to have ‘suckling pig’ in my
diploma as my demonstration dish. You can baste
the top. Put it under the head to
stop the head from coming off. Lift it up and lay it under the head.
That’s good. My boss is great. He explains
and shows us everything properly. I’ll probably
work here later. I want to graduate from university,
do my national service in the army and fulfill my duty
to my homeland. After that I might work as
a military correspondent, reporting about what no one can see. I might get a commission in the armed
forces or the secret service, if I’m declared fit for service.
Or I’ll go into politics. A year ago Taya and I were
active in the Navalny movement. We tried to support him wherever we
could, on his staff, we signed up as
election monitors. Now we’ve distanced ourselves
more, participate less. Take freedom of
speech, for example. Here they put you in
prison for a shared post, for something
you say online. They passed a law
making it illegal -the state?
-to insult the state. It applies to statements
they don’t like. -It’s against the constitution.
-Yes. Where freedom of speech is concerned --
if you’re openly critical of the state, they can now put
you behind bars. We have no civil society,
it hasn’t been established yet. Why was there such a
decline after Perestroika? It happened because the
most active people were at that point in
time burned out. And those who still had
the energy went abroad. Those who were burned out
stayed, and the others left. And that’s how it happened that control
over the situation was lost. It’s a demo for the admission
of opposition candidates to Moscow City Council. All independent candidates
have been barred from standing for election. My generation is free. It’s freer than our parents’ generation, so they try to discourage
us, to intimidate us, they threaten us at school, because we’re freer
than our parents, and therefore more of a
threat to the powers that be.
As I listened it didn’t seem much different than American Millennial’s. As a Senior I’m familiar with the contrasts between Us and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. If I wasn’t aware that it was a documentary about Putin’s Russia, it would sound like Trump’s America. Just the fact that it was filmed in Russia is a big change from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Naturally there are greater freedoms in America thanks to our
ConstitutionBill of Rights. However I wonder whether today’s Millennials feel that way. As a 70 year old it would be foolish for me to presume to know what today’s younger generation’s are feeling. Just as it’s foolish to say that a documentary truly speaks for Generation Putin. I’m curious whether our Millennials can identify with Generation Putin.Edit: Clarification
Free enough to see freedom, not free enough to live it
didn't know the kid from stranger thing was russian Oo
A really interesting set of interviews. The redhead, Polina, I found especially compelling, particularly the clips from 9:17-11:40 and 23:56-25:20.
I did feel there was some selective editing, for example at 5:00 she clearly says, ‘in the second, they probably reuse components from atomic bombs.’ At 16:15, Andrey says ‘people consider Russia to be lagging in this regard’ rather than ‘backward’ - then the clip seems to jump and I could be mistaken, it’s really hard to make out, but I don’t hear him say ‘a mighty state like Russia,’ just something like ‘the deterioration of a country is enabled by ... the development of their country’.
I wish they had explored Andrey’s story more. I’m surprised they didn’t think to ask him about the tenets of Kudo and how they relate to his political views. I don’t know much about martial arts or eastern philosophy but here are the rules posted at every Kudo dojo, according to Wiki:
Hi I just came here to say the thumbnail girl looks like a young, attractive, Susan Boyle.
I would be careful watching this. Its made by Deutsche Welle and the german media and goverment are very anti-russian. Sometimes justified and sometimes dont.
Ruthless, armed with the right knowledge, ambitious and facing a "friend" in the form of fat, lazy and unwilling American millennials. I'm pretty sure they won the spy war already