Aging of Russian Elite Reflects Worldwide Uncertainty about the Future, Mironenko Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 24 – The Russian elite, like the elites of many other countries, is aging, reminding those with memories of the last years of the USSR, Vladimir Mironenko says, all the more so because the cause of this development is the same: “above all, no one knew [or knows] what to do next.”

            The Russian artist and publicist says that the world in the early 1980s entered “a pause” when no one was sure what they should do or how to hand things off to the next generation and the same sense of being in a pause and the absence of a road map for the future are once again in place (imhoclub.lv/ru/material/pochemu_stareet_mirovaja_politicheskaja_elita).

            In the late Soviet era, “the second echelon of world rulers,” those who in the USSR  were often called Komsomols or even Pioneers were clearly too inexperienced to take over; and the aging elites were afraid to hand off things to them. Something similar is happening in the US now, although there are exceptions as in Canada and France.

            “Theoretically,” Mironenko says, “there is nothing bad about this. It is even possible that society must ultimately delegate to power only the very young and the very old,” two groups whose members are “closer to eternity, the first to the beginning and the other to the end.” They may fit together better than those in the middle who are less idealistic but not yet experienced.

            The chief task in such situations is not to allow the middle aged, those between 35 and 65 to muscle their way in. Of course, there will be exceptions, the commentator says; but they will be rare as in such times, the oldest will remain in power until they can hand things off not to their children but to their grandchildren.