Thursday, May 14, 2026

Nikolai Karpitsky. Will Russian Zoomers Break the Cycle of Imperial Consciousness?



Russian imperial consciousness is reproduced from generation to generation through the family, the school system, and the very structure of everyday life. But is there hope that, in the new information age, this continuity will be broken? In Russia, young people have migrated en masse into the online space, where they form subcultures and acquire new knowledge and communication skills independently of school and family. However, the Russian authorities intend to restrict the free internet as much as possible. What could this lead to?

Who Are Zoomers?

People born from the mid-1990s to the early 2010s are the first generation of the digital age, often referred to as Generation Z, or zoomers. A typical representative of this generation cannot imagine life without the internet, smartphones, and social media; is less inclined toward smoking and alcohol consumption; and places a strong emphasis on a healthy lifestyle. Zoomers perceive themselves as cosmopolitans of a free online space, within which they unite into communities and form subcultures. It is there that they master the English language, which they were unable to learn properly at school, and gain a sense of freedom from national borders.

The Unpredictable Consequences of Information Technologies

Social processes are difficult to predict – they usually have to be explained after the fact. Who could have foreseen that the spread of information technologies would lead to the uprising of the archaic around the world and contribute to Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election? Nevertheless, this can be explained in hindsight.

A primitive and archaic worldview prevented many people from keeping pace with modern life, confining them within a small and familiar world. However, the new information space created by digital technologies destroyed this comfort zone by drawing them into the wider world – and this changed the balance of political forces. Zoomers, however, are still too young to become a comparable force in major politics. Decades must pass before the current participants in youth subcultures grow up and enter the elite that determines the direction of society’s development.

Meanwhile, the Russian authorities have long mobilized in support of everyone oriented toward archaic – and such people do not need the internet for this. The authorities intend to keep the younger generation in an informational reservation as a resource for replenishing manpower at the front and therefore are consistently fighting against the free internet. But is this actually possible?

As the experience of the ten-year occupation of eastern regions of Ukraine has shown, theoretically, this is possible. One of my students, who communicated with young people in territories occupied since 2014, noted that they seemed to have stopped developing: “While we are active in life, looking for jobs to support ourselves during our studies and making our own decisions, the local youth are infantile – it would never occur to them to decide anything for themselves.” During the full-scale invasion, all these young people were sent to die at the front. Can the same be done to the entirety of Russia’s youth? I believe that this is precisely one of the goals behind the struggle against the free internet.

The Struggle Against the Free Internet – a Transition from Authoritarianism to Totalitarianism

Until 2011, there were no restrictions on the internet in Russia for the same reason that the authorities are now trying to restrict it as much as possible: Russian dictator Vladimir Putin did not and does not understand what the internet is or what significance it has in the life of a modern person.

In 2012, a registry of banned websites was introduced, which internet providers were required to block. In 2014, the Prosecutor General’s Office received the authority to block websites without a court order. On November 1, 2019, “The Sovereign Internet Law” came into force, providing for the installation of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) equipment on operators’ networks in order to establish full control over the network and isolate the Russian internet from the global web. After the start of the full-scale war on February 24, 2022, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and numerous independent media outlets were blocked. The transition from selective blocking to total political censorship had begun. In January 2026, the State Duma granted the FSB the authority to shut down any forms of communication – internet access and mobile communications – in any region of the country. From that moment on, internet access in Russia ceased to be a right and became a privilege granted by the authorities.

By blocking the internet, the Kremlin intends to confine young people to an informational reservation cut off from the outside world. But is an apolitical youth capable of resisting this?

Ukrainian and Russian Zoomers

Whereas Ukrainian zoomers generally seek to integrate the possibilities of new information technologies into their social lives, their Russian peers are, more often than not, escapists. This is explained by the different paths Ukraine and Russia have taken in the 21st century.

Ukrainian youth witnessed two democratic revolutions, and this instilled in them a belief in their own strength and in the possibility of influencing public life. They want a new Ukraine – free from corrupt and incompetent bureaucracy and open to every talented person. Young people are ready to fight for such a country, as the Cardboard Maidan demonstrated.

In Russia, by contrast, an authoritarian regime became established – initially in a relatively soft form: the authorities adhered to an unspoken social contract with the population: “You do not interfere in politics, and we do not interfere in your private life.” This encouraged young people to retreat into the online space. There emerged a social stratum of young people who wanted nothing to do with Russian social reality and had no interest in what was happening in the country. Conversations about politics in their circles were considered almost indecent – as reminders of the world from which they wished to distance themselves completely.

After the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the authoritarian Kremlin regime finally transformed into a totalitarian one, seeking to control every sphere of human life, including the internet. Nevertheless, escapist zoomers try not to notice this.

On the one hand, this is an escape from responsibility for social life. From a Ukrainian point of view, such a position is perceived as a manifestation of infantilism and irresponsibility, as well as silent complicity in the crimes committed by Russia.

On the other hand, Russian zoomers are the first generation to shape themselves independently of the state within their own subcultures. And this offers a chance to finally break the vicious chain through which Russian imperial consciousness has been reproduced from generation to generation. It is a kind of escape that leaves open the possibility of returning to reality – armed with newly acquired knowledge and skills.

The Russian authorities cannot allow this and will do everything possible to fill the still largely apolitical consciousness of zoomers with their own ideological content. Yet the archaic worldview promoted by Kremlin propaganda is completely incompatible with the image of the informational future. On the one hand, there is a world without borders, the ability to communicate with anyone from any corner of the Earth, and access to the entirety of humanity’s cultural heritage and all modern scientific achievements at the distance of a single click. On the other hand, there is a return to medieval “spiritual bonds” supposedly meant to protect society from the influence of modern civilization.

Modern Russian youth will have to make their choice.

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