JRL NEWSWATCH: “In Defeating the August 1991 Coup, Russians Won — and Then Lost — Democracy; Will young people continue fighting for freedom?” – The Nation
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“… Of course, none of us really understood what democracy was at that time, since generations of Soviet people did not have the experience. I didn’t understand that we have to fight for freedom every day — excellent laws and even parliamentary decisions are not enough. I did not suspect that under capitalism, which then seemed to many an ideal prospect, freedom must also be fought for, albeit in other ways. It seemed then that the victory over totalitarianism was final and irrevocable, that we would happily build a new life. For this naïveté, many have paid a very high price. … Young people in Russia, according to the results of the analysis of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, assess events in the country and in the world in a completely different way than their elders. They feel like citizens of the world and do not want to live in isolation. They live in a huge digital space; they have been born in a market economy, albeit an imperfect one, so they are less consumed with making money. They want to live in a free country. There is hope that they will complete what my generation, my peers, who stood in the living ring of defenders of the newborn Russian democracy, were unable to achieve.”