Russia
"Pepski Generation"
"Russian Youth from the 1990s until 2010: Generational Changes"
"In Russia, the label “Generation X” became popular upon the translation of Douglas Coupland’s famous book, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, into Russian in 1998. Thereupon the term achieved popularity following the publication of a series of articles about the modern youth phenomenon in the journal OM, which in the mid-’90s conducted open liberal, cultural politics and was orientated toward presenting the real cultural order of the day to Russian readers. It is important to note that in today’s Russian context (journalistic and academic) there exist several different versions of who is Generation X and what is the chronology that determines the generation. One of the chronologies that has been taken up by Russian researchers is the reading of “generation” according to years of birth, which looks as follows: the Silent Generation (1923–1943), Baby Boomers (1943–1963), Generation X (1963–1984), the Millennium Generation or Generation Y (1984–2000), and Generation Z (2000–?). Other homegrown researchers consider that the characteristics of Generation X are only beginning to become apparent today. This is explained by the specific historical path of post-Soviet Russia. Toward the ’90s, young people, just as the heroes of the book by Coupland, experienced the difficult period of a double breaking up of society, and therefore can be only partially compared to their Western contemporaries. The childhood and youth of these young people took place in the later Soviet period. They succeeded in being both pioneers and Komsomols (the Communist Union of Youth). They were able to go to the university at the very peak of the social collapse and to finish higher education in what was now a different country. It is likely, therefore, that young people born from the end of the ’80s to the beginning of the ’90s can be, to a large extent, included as those belonging to Generation X at the end of the 20th century. They already completely fall under the Soviet and post-Soviet experience of socialization and ideology as a result of the politics of the iron curtain and the particular political practices of establishing a new identity—“building communism.” In this case, the stress moves away from striving to define exact dates of birth of a generation to searching for similar characteristics in terms of world outlook, specific trends, key ideas and practices, similar traits and ideals, vectors of generational solidarity, and their significant difference from other contemporaries. ~ Elena Omelchenko, Excerpt from Generation X Goes Global Omelchenko Elena. Head of the chair for the sociology of the NRU Higher school of economics in St.Petersburg. Director of the Centre for youth studies (NRU Higher school of economics in St.Petersburg). Director of the SRC “Region” (Ulyanovsk State University). Professor Omelchenko graduated from Moscow State University with degree in Philosophy and Ph.D. In 2005 she was conferred the title of ‘Doctor of Sociology’ [equivalent to attainment of Professorial status in the UK system] at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Sociology (Moscow). In 1995 she founded the Interdisciplinary Research Centre ‘Region’, Ulyanovsk State University, which she is currently leading. Since 2009 she is Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology, Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg and also director of the Centre for youth Studies at the same University. She works mainly in the field of youth studies, but with a very broad focus. She has publications on youth violence, youth drug abuse, ethnic and religious identities, gender issues and sexualities, migration, but her main sphere of interests are youth (sub)cultures. Her current projects explore generational formations, youth solidarities, patriotic moods of youth and influence of soviet past on young people. "Russia’s Generations X and Y: From Soviet to Russian amidst Globalization"
"Russia’s Generation X, born between the 1960s and early 1970s, is also known as the last Soviet generation, which grew up educated with the doctrines of Marxism and Leninism but which took part in this ideology only superficially. In his book Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, Alexei Yurchak contends that Soviet citizens participated in the regime as they created strategies of overt agreement; they subscribed to the form but did not believe in the content. In other words, in celebrating the October Revolution, they joined the official parade but enjoyed more the day off in the company of family and friends. Confined by the culture of the Cold War, this generation was immersed in the political discourse (manifested in media and film) that demonized the West, even though often laughably obvious and direct. Films glorified and idealized Soviet society and, in turn, triggered an alternative fantasy of western paradise. Individuals withdrew into this secret fantasy and found enjoyment in privately dreaming, which kept the status quo of the system." ~ Yana Hashamova, Excerpt from Generation X Goes Global Yana Hashamova.
Associate Professor of Slavic and Director of the Center for Slavic and East European Studies at Ohio State University. She has Associate Faculty appointments in the Departments of Comparative Studies, Women’s Studies, the Interdisciplinary Program of Film Studies, and the Mershon Center for International Security. She has published Pride and Panic: Russian Imagination of the West in Post-Soviet Film (Bristol, UK: Intellect Press, 2007) and co-edited a volume (with Helena Goscilo) Cinepaternity: Fathers and Sons in Soviet and Post-Soviet Film (Indiana University Press (2010). Also with Helena Goscilo, she co-edited a journal cluster “Women in War: Mobilisation, Manipulation, and Marginalisation,” Aspasia: International Yearbook of Central, Eastern, Southeastern European Women’s and Gender History 4 (2010). She strives to establish links between political ideology, gender, critical psychoanalysis, and cinema, while analyzing post-Soviet conditions. In Russia, Punk-Rock Riot Girls Rage Against Putin
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Victor Pelevin: Generation "P" (1999) trans. as Homo Zapiens
EXCERPT FROM the novel HOMO ZAPIENS by Viktor Pelevin
“Once upon a time in Russia there really was a carefree, youthful generation that smiled in joy at the summer, the sea and the sun, and chose Pepsi. It’s hard at this stage to figure out exactly how this situation came about. More likely it involved more than just the remarkable taste of the drink in question. More than just the caffeine that keeps young kids demanding another dose, steering them securely out of childhood into the clear waters of the channel of cocaine” (1). (Pelevin, Victor. Homo Zapiens. Trans. Andrew Bromfield. New York: Penguin Books, 2000.) |
For Further Reading
Arif, Elvira. “‘Hvatit pokupat'! Vsego i tak navalom!: prostranstva svobodnye ot kommercializacii v srede rossijskoj molodezhi.” [“Stop Buying! It’s Enough!”: Free from Commercial Spaces among Russian Youth]. Bjulleten' JeSForum 1 (2011). Pdf. <http://youth.hse.spb.ru/en/node/137>
Beck, U., and E. Beck-Gernsheim. “Global Generations and the Trap of Methodological Nationalism For a Cosmopolitan Turn in the Sociology of Youth and Generation.”
European Sociological Review 25.1 (2009): 25–36. Print.
Bennett, Andy. “In Defence of Neo-Tribes: A Response to Blackman and Hesmondhalgh.” Journal of Youth Studies 8.2 (2005): 255–59. Print.
Bezdenezhnyh Ivan et al. Eto nasha molodeZhZh [This is Our Youth]. Russkiy Reporter N8 8.12 (2007). Web. N.d. <http://expert.ru/russian_reporter/2007/08/nasha_molodezh/>
Blackman, S. “Youth Subcultural Theory: A Critical Engagement with the Concept, Its Origins and Politics, from the Chicago School to Postmodernism.” Journal of Youth Studies, 8.1 (2005): 1–20. Print.
Cohen, P. Rethinking The Youth Question Education, Labor and Cultural Studies. London: Macmillan, 1997. Print.
Dubin, Boris. “Pokolenie: smysl i granicy ponjatija.” [Generations: Meaning and Limits of the Notion]. Otcy i deti. Pokolencheskij analiz sovremennoj Rossii. Sost. Ju. Levada, T. Shanin. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2005. 61–79. Print.
Edmunds, J. and B. S. Turner. Generations, Culture And Society. Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2002. Print.
---. “Global Generations: Social Change in the Twentieth Century.” The British Journal of Sociology 56.4 (2005): 559–77. Print.
Flintoff, Corey. “In Russia, Punk Rock Riot Girls Rage Against Putin.” NPR Feb 8, 2012. Web. Feb. 8, 2012. <http://www.npr.org/2012/02/08/146581790/in-russia-punk-rock-riot-girls-rage-against-putin>
Grigoriev Igor. Interview with Kopeland, David. OM N 3 (1996): N.p. Print.
Kohli, M. Aging and Justice. Research Group on Aging and Life Course. Research Report 74. Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin. 2005. Print.
Magun, V., and V. Jengovatov. “Mezhpokolennaja dinamika zhiznennyh pritjazanij molodezhi i strategij ih resursnogo obespechenija 1985-2001 gg.” [Intergenerational Dynamic of Life Expectations of Youth and Strategies of Resource Searching 1985–2001]. Otcy i deti: Pokolencheskij analiz sovremennoj Rossii. Sost. Ju. Levada, T. Shanin. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2005. 261–327. Print.
Mannheim, K. The Problem of Generations: Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Print.
Omel'chenko, Elena. Molodezhnye kul’tury i subkul’tury [Special Courses for Sociological Education’ Series]. Moscow: Institut soziologii, 2000. Print.
---, ed. Normal'naja molodezh'. pivo, tusovka, narkotiki. [Normal Youth. Beer, Tusovka, Drugs]. Ulyanovsk: Izd-vo UlGU, 2005. Print.
Omel'chenko, Elena. “Pokolenie TEXT: novye imena molodezhnoj kul'tury” [Generation TEXT: New Names of Youth Cultures]. Reklamnye Idei 2.08 (2008): 106–11. Print.
Omel'chenko, Elena, and Evgeniya Luk'janova, eds. Neokonchatel'nyj analiz … ksenofobnye nastroenija v molodezhnoj srede [Non-Finished Analyze … Xenofobic Moods Among Youth]. Ul'janovsk: Izdatel'stvo Ul'janovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2009. Print.
Pilkington, H., Elena Omelchenko, et al. Looking West? Cultural Globalization and Russian Youth Cultures. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002. Print.
Pilkington, H. and R. Jonson. “Periphery Youth Relations of Identity and Power in Global/Local Context.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 6.3 August (2003): 259–85. Print.
Semenova, Viktoriya. Social'naja dinamika pokolenij: problemy i real'nost' [Social Dynamic of Generations: Problems and Reality]. Moscow: Rossijskaja politicheskaja enciklopedija, 2009. Print.
Beck, U., and E. Beck-Gernsheim. “Global Generations and the Trap of Methodological Nationalism For a Cosmopolitan Turn in the Sociology of Youth and Generation.”
European Sociological Review 25.1 (2009): 25–36. Print.
Bennett, Andy. “In Defence of Neo-Tribes: A Response to Blackman and Hesmondhalgh.” Journal of Youth Studies 8.2 (2005): 255–59. Print.
Bezdenezhnyh Ivan et al. Eto nasha molodeZhZh [This is Our Youth]. Russkiy Reporter N8 8.12 (2007). Web. N.d. <http://expert.ru/russian_reporter/2007/08/nasha_molodezh/>
Blackman, S. “Youth Subcultural Theory: A Critical Engagement with the Concept, Its Origins and Politics, from the Chicago School to Postmodernism.” Journal of Youth Studies, 8.1 (2005): 1–20. Print.
Cohen, P. Rethinking The Youth Question Education, Labor and Cultural Studies. London: Macmillan, 1997. Print.
Dubin, Boris. “Pokolenie: smysl i granicy ponjatija.” [Generations: Meaning and Limits of the Notion]. Otcy i deti. Pokolencheskij analiz sovremennoj Rossii. Sost. Ju. Levada, T. Shanin. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2005. 61–79. Print.
Edmunds, J. and B. S. Turner. Generations, Culture And Society. Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2002. Print.
---. “Global Generations: Social Change in the Twentieth Century.” The British Journal of Sociology 56.4 (2005): 559–77. Print.
Flintoff, Corey. “In Russia, Punk Rock Riot Girls Rage Against Putin.” NPR Feb 8, 2012. Web. Feb. 8, 2012. <http://www.npr.org/2012/02/08/146581790/in-russia-punk-rock-riot-girls-rage-against-putin>
Grigoriev Igor. Interview with Kopeland, David. OM N 3 (1996): N.p. Print.
Kohli, M. Aging and Justice. Research Group on Aging and Life Course. Research Report 74. Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin. 2005. Print.
Magun, V., and V. Jengovatov. “Mezhpokolennaja dinamika zhiznennyh pritjazanij molodezhi i strategij ih resursnogo obespechenija 1985-2001 gg.” [Intergenerational Dynamic of Life Expectations of Youth and Strategies of Resource Searching 1985–2001]. Otcy i deti: Pokolencheskij analiz sovremennoj Rossii. Sost. Ju. Levada, T. Shanin. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2005. 261–327. Print.
Mannheim, K. The Problem of Generations: Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Print.
Omel'chenko, Elena. Molodezhnye kul’tury i subkul’tury [Special Courses for Sociological Education’ Series]. Moscow: Institut soziologii, 2000. Print.
---, ed. Normal'naja molodezh'. pivo, tusovka, narkotiki. [Normal Youth. Beer, Tusovka, Drugs]. Ulyanovsk: Izd-vo UlGU, 2005. Print.
Omel'chenko, Elena. “Pokolenie TEXT: novye imena molodezhnoj kul'tury” [Generation TEXT: New Names of Youth Cultures]. Reklamnye Idei 2.08 (2008): 106–11. Print.
Omel'chenko, Elena, and Evgeniya Luk'janova, eds. Neokonchatel'nyj analiz … ksenofobnye nastroenija v molodezhnoj srede [Non-Finished Analyze … Xenofobic Moods Among Youth]. Ul'janovsk: Izdatel'stvo Ul'janovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2009. Print.
Pilkington, H., Elena Omelchenko, et al. Looking West? Cultural Globalization and Russian Youth Cultures. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002. Print.
Pilkington, H. and R. Jonson. “Periphery Youth Relations of Identity and Power in Global/Local Context.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 6.3 August (2003): 259–85. Print.
Semenova, Viktoriya. Social'naja dinamika pokolenij: problemy i real'nost' [Social Dynamic of Generations: Problems and Reality]. Moscow: Rossijskaja politicheskaja enciklopedija, 2009. Print.