Year of the kid

As the Russian society, bogged down in the war, supported both the criminal culture of Prigozhin and the primitive brutality of the series of Kryzhovnikov. The results of 2023 from sociologist Svetlana Stevenson

For Russia, the outgoing year has become a year in which the world of crime, prison and gang was revealed to society in a heroic form.

The Russian state introduced the heroes of former criminals who fought in Ukraine, and their combat leader, Evgeny Prigozhin into its pantheon. Then it defiantly dealt with Prigozhin - according to criminal concepts. And at the end of the year, a series was released in which street boys of the late 80s, who turned their life and the life of others into hell, were shown not only without condemnation, but with understanding, but sometimes with admiration. All this happened against the backdrop of further zeroing in Russia what the previous life was held on: laws and norms that make the civilized coexistence of different social groups in the state possible.

Prison values ​​- for banners

Since the beginning of the year, the first criminals began to return from the front to win at the front as part of the Wagner PMC for six months under the contract. Basically, former bandits returned , drug dealers - people who committed serious crimes. Plorized by secret presidential decrees, former prisoners began to commit new crimes. The protests of the relatives of the victims, the fears of local residents did not have for the authorities, according to all the laws and norms of the obligation to protect the population, no importance.

Moreover, society was supposed to accept not only the return of rapists and killers, often to those places where they committed their crimes, but also their heroization. Prigozhin insisted on honoring the dead PMC fighters. Memory boards and “desks of the heroes” were installed in schools where they studied. In cemeteries, former prisoners from PMC were buried on the alleys of fame. The requirements of the head of the PMC to prohibit publicly criticizing volunteers, including former prisoners, and mention their former crimes were met with understanding in the State Duma.

Prigozhin from the sanction of power has brought the energy of violence to Russian reality, related to the world that traditionally opposed the state - the world of prison and street. He withdrew from prison fighters, ready to fight and shed blood.

At the same time, he began to actively introduce into public life and ideas about brutal justice inherent in this world.

A vivid symbol of an extraordinary reprisal was a sledgehammer, which he defeated not only the heads of “traitors” in his army, but also threatened all the bureaucratic and oligarchic order. The demonstrative killings by the “Wagnerians” of those whom they considered traitors did not lead to any punishment. Representatives of the authorities with ostentatious pleasure took a sledgehammer as a gift. Insults of the status military leaders, colorful invectives towards oligarchs and officials - this is the symbolic destruction of the foundations of the state itself for a long time, without causing any rebuff.

The capture of Bakhmut and the expectation of further successes of PMCs on the Ukrainian front was paid off for the regime that bloody carnival, which accompanied the entire public activity of Prigozhin. And only an open rebellion completed it, it seemed, an unstoppable flight to the heights of power and influence.

Expressor of the anti -elite request

The rebellion itself was poorly prepared. Having moved the troops to Moscow in search of “justice”, Prigozhin did not have a clear program and ready coalition. And how unexpectedly the owner of the Wagner PMC stopped the troops, without proceeding to the leading of “justice”, suggests that in his demarche the expressive, anti -constructive spirit prevailed over a thoughtful political action.

To go powerfully on the stage, to show yourself that everyone can see what power and determination he possesses and what kind of cowardly women these Shoigu and Gerasimov - this is what Prigozhin really managed before his rebellion "stuck in the gates of the circus."

However, by his rebellion, the head of the PMC showed that the rhetoric of the lower justice, supported by the readiness for violence, could enjoy significant support among the population. Anti-elitism, direct appeal to the people over the bureaucracy, the promise of retaliation with corrupt corrupt officers and those because of whom the “thousands of boys” died, emphasized military masculinity, with contempt for weak and “lowered”, which he refused to take in PMCs, all this aroused interest and support.

Polls conducted on the eve of the rebellion confirmed the serious popularity of Prigozhin in Russian society.

The then 58% of respondents announced their positive attitude to Prigozhin's activities. After the rebellion of these, 30% remained , which is also very many.

Disassembly of "boys"

Unlike Putin's statesman, Prigozhin imagined himself as an emergency leader acting on top of power institutions. It seems that in a society, brutalized by the war and not counting on the law, there is a request for just that - in fact, a proto -fascist agenda.

The rebellion of Prigozhin became a shock for the Russian political system. The authorities, adopting repressive laws, strengthening the power apparatus, was preparing to prevent and suppress color revolutions, and it had to encounter a military rebellion from the side of her client .

The enchanting riot of Prigozhin was followed by no less enchanting reprisal. And again, the law was thrown back as unnecessary. At first, having promised forgiveness to the former cook and euthanizing his vigilance , Putin defiantly destroyed him on August 23, two months after the event.

The leader, in the hands of which was a huge state repressive machine, always acting without fail against the alleged enemies of the state, did not deny himself the pleasure of a colorful setting, in which the traitor’s plane exploded in the air, destroying everyone, including the crew.

The indicative execution according to the scenario of gangster showdowns seemed necessary , since it was about Putin’s personal honor, which Prigozhin encroached. While the judicial system is slowly chewing oppositionists, botanists and “Chushpanov”, boys are versed in terms of concepts - decisively and irrevocably.

The world of primitive brutality

And finally, the series “The Word of the Boanding” was a large event of the year. He shows episodes from the 1980s when, against an unattractive background of late-Soviet life, with its hypocrisy, poverty and universal rudeness, the “movement” develops, and the street tribes of boys are fighting among themselves.

This is the world of male violence, which is afraid and enchanting. It is helped by those who are ready to live according to the laws of the street, and “sew up” the apostates. Here the hero cannot stand up for his girl, "desecrated" by members of another group. But there are such as Vova Adidas ( one of the main characters of the series, the head of the street group. - Approx. Ed. ), With his charm, the ability to get out of any situation, fatherly instruct the boys and restore justice. Such as Adidas, of course, should die at the end, but they are more humane than cruel police officers and grotesque Komsomol members.

Compared to previous Russian films dedicated to the world of violence, such as “Brother” or “Brigade”, the plot moves in the “Word of the kid” do not hold on a bright personality of heroes.

Here everyone live in flocks - boys, Komsomol, the only question is what kind of power is for.

Collectiveness defeats individuality, and social control is carried out using either violence or shame. The latter, for example, is worried about the mother of the protagonist when he discovers that the hat presented to her was stolen from the teacher to whom she came. The shame determines the fate of the father of Vova Adidas, who searches in the eyes of his colleagues, because of which they turn away from him and do not come to him for the anniversary.

At the end of this year, the series recalled the world from which the entire Russian state system grew up. About the primary broth from which the first Komsomol-party entrepreneurs and the first racketeers arose. About a specific idea of ​​honor - "the boys do not apologize." About the inevitable reckoning for betrayal. About the need to beat first if there is supposedly there is no other choice.

“The Words of the Boil” shows a realistic picture of the zeroing of civilization, which has rumored to primitive brutality and support on his own. At least partly its massive popularity can be explained by the fact that the zero and brutality of Russian society could observe the whole 2023 and will probably observe in 2024.