Z Generation by Ian Garner;

Author:Ian Garner;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 1)
Published: 2023-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

The world of war enthusiasm

The invasion was the moment that Ivan Kondakov had long been waiting for. The time when, finally, the state would stop pandering to the people attacking it from outside and deal with the “traitors” within its own borders. In the first week of the war, he plastered a large red “Z” over his VK profile photograph. Peering through the partially transparent letter at his face and beyond, onto his page’s feed, it’s hard to find much of Ivan left.

But he’s eager to chat. It’s a chance to spread the gospel of war. When I ask him about the nature of the war, Ivan repeats everything Vladislav and the state have already told us a hundred times over. Ukrainians hate everything Russian, but Ivan doesn’t blame them. They are, he tells me, “cult members” who’ve been brainwashed by “American psychologists … who’ve done them over 100 percent professionally.” And, of course, he is sure that the war will bring about a new world: Russia “is fighting not just against Ukraine but against the whole of the West for a new world order. We’re working so that Russia can—will—be one of the centers of world civilization again!”

He might not be volunteering for the front, but Ivan’s doing what he can for the war effort by going into a virtual battle with Ukrainians, liberals, and homosexuals. He’s releasing new music, self-penned poetry recitals, and TikTok-style vox pop sermons. “I’m no soldier,” he tells me, “but at least I can do this.” And plenty agree that his work is an important part of the war. The extreme nationalist vlogger Mikhail Onufrienko recently described Kondakov as “an instrument of information war.”30 Even if he’s not risking life and limb to stymie a Ukrainian advance, Ivan is a soldier defending the world of unreality he and his peers have constructed.

He’s been extraordinarily productive in recent months. His wartime works attack the gamut of Russia’s enemies. Kondakov’s number one target is Ukrainians. Russia, he tells his audience, loves the infantile Ukrainians. Europe will abandon them at the first whiff of trouble.31 But Ivan speaks of Ukrainians with hatred, not love. Much of his opprobrium is leveled at Zelenskyy, whom he attacks in antisemitic doggerel as “y*d-like.” In one poem uploaded to his social feeds, Ivan lays into Ukrainian refugees. “Summer, croissants, and Schengen are all they want!” he spits into the wobbling smartphone frame; Ukrainians are just money-grabbing conmen whose dreams will come to naught when the West grows tired of helping them.

But Ivan isn’t satisfied with attacking Ukrainians. He’s taking part in the state’s mission to purify Russian society. In his world, internal enemies are everywhere. Whether they’re queer—“sodomites” are Nazis who commit “crimes against humanity”—or liberal, they’re all undermining the war effort.

It didn’t take Ivan even a fortnight after the invasion to cook up “Pacifistution,” a three-minute pop song that attacks liberal Russians who oppose the war as stupid, selfie-loving, and shallow traitors who get everything from Russia but still dream of going to live in depraved London.

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