Which generation will build postwar Ukraine? X, Millennials or Zoomers
Looking back on the years of Independence, it can be stated that Generation X – those born in the mid-70s to mid-80s – is truly unique in terms of their experience.
Because we were born in the USSR, we saw the Pioneers and even the Komsomol, but we were formed in the first years of independence. Our worldview consisted of solid fragments – a rebellion against the past, a search for new authorities, an attempt to survive in chaos and at the same time find ourselves.
They were formed in different ways and with different values. By chaos in the head, rejecting parental heroes and creating their own heroes, inventing new methods of survival and adaptation.
The collapse of the Soviet Union, the galloping inflation of the 1990s, shock economic therapy, three revolutions, the economic crisis of 2009, the outbreak of war in 2014, and full-blown Covid. And all of this happened during the most productive years of my life. That is, if we look at this generation in general, it has experienced perhaps the most social and psychological upheavals (so far). If there is a dimension of generational stress, we are probably the champions in terms of cortisol levels.
On the other hand, this is a generation that has not realized itself politically. It has not become dominant under any president. And most likely, it will not become dominant.
We often discuss in our team, where there are very few X-ers anymore, and most of us are millennials and even zoomers (those born between 1997 and 2009), whether the people who came to their first "cardboard Maidan" will have similar experience and political realization. And who will ultimately be responsible for building postwar Ukraine – the burnt-out but hardened generation of the 80s, or the generation of those whose parents are now at war?
Frankly speaking, I am in favor of the latter. Because the new life will seek not only new words, but also new approaches. And if the slogan "Away with Moscow!" continues to work, its content will have to be composed not by gray-haired old men, but by those who have not left Ukraine and see their future and fulfillment here. This slogan will be filled with meaning by those who grew up in freedom and do not know what the imperial burden was in childhood. But they have certainly realized the value of their land, their time, their mission.
This generation has a great chance to build a great Ukraine. And perhaps this is the beauty of Independence, that it opens the door to those who will come after us.
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