To the FSB, if nothing is interesting

How the realities of modern Russia are changing the dreams of teenagers

Some time ago, I had a conversation with ninth-graders from the village of Moskovsky - a few kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road, before there was a state farm, and now New Moscow and new buildings. The settlement has been populated in recent years mainly by our provincial middle class, migrants from the regions who have saved up for housing almost in Moscow. My ninth graders are characteristic representatives of the local school from among the lagging behind. Teachers politically correct call them athletes. As a lecturer at one of the capital's universities, I was asked to talk with children about career guidance.
They come to class in cotton sweatpants, and spend most of their free time in class doing two things: looking at pictures on their phones and scratching. They tried to somehow qualify me, to find out what kind of creature I am. So we remained neutral until the end of the lesson and were incomprehensible to each other. And the discussion turned out to be quite honest.
Although listening is hard for them, after 10 seconds they lose interest in any new information. In principle, they can talk about their topics. The main theme is one - cars. Probably more sex, but they didn’t dare to discuss it with me as a “teacher” - the limits of decency were respected.
But there is another important topic: how to get settled in life.
The conversation was about, so to speak, career guidance. Their first question in this context:
What to do if nothing is interesting?
And my own teenage version of the answer:
- The main thing is to push you through and help you get settled. Here's how it is: dad sent his brother to study at the Gubkin Oil and Gas Academy. And then he will become the head of Lukoil, like dad.
I'm asking:
Do you want to live like this?
“That’s how everyone lives, didn’t you know?”
In addition to oil and gas, the FSB Academy was also discussed as a dream. Everyone agreed that it is very prestigious, but "athletes" may not be able to pull off such a task.
Therefore, we are talking about a military career. The army is sacred, and they teach you to be a man, the ninth graders explained to me, who just talked about the importance of “pushing through”. In addition, if you go, for example, on a contract to Novaya Zemlya, you can earn a lot of money.
The moral here is simple. In 2015, just like twenty years ago, young people in Russia want to break out of the poverty of their neighborhoods. They want a beautiful life, or at least a stable salary. In the 90s, in order to achieve success, it was necessary to join the ranks of bandits and participate in the primitive accumulation of capital to the extent possible. The fighter's career in this "power enterprise" seems to have begun with guarding facilities. And today history is repeating itself. Only to the present moment, when fortunes have been made and redistributed anew on a state foundation, do the desires of young people, which have remained stable, need a new form. In 2015, a prestigious career and a ticket from the hopelessness of Russian life is the civil service and the crusts of the “silovik”. The army, the FSB, the police, the bailiff service, even the Federal Penitentiary Service will do. A career in them is seen as an opportunity to cling firmly to the state, to stop being a hard-working people and go out into the people. Ideally, to establish a “dynasty”, that is, to transfer their part of the state, their privatized right to “legitimate violence” to feed children.
The "sportsmen" from Moscow are far from being the poorest, disadvantaged teenagers in our country. Regional centers, industrial monotowns and villages by 2015 have become an almost inexhaustible source of misfortune and ressentiment, and therefore a potential source of personnel for the law enforcement agencies of modern Russia, for war with the outside world or even with their own people. Here the dream of a Chekist career becomes a continuation of despair. And the revanchism of the militarists is well paid, including at the grassroots level. The salaries of the military and police in recent years have been higher than the average for most regions - after all, these people, as we now know, are being trained for serious business.
Shoigu and company report that patriotism and spirituality are growing in the country, they offer to take credit for the number of young men who dream of a career in security forces. But communication with real teenagers suggests otherwise: the desire to serve the state has nothing to do with moral values, it's just business - especially when "nothing is interesting."