15.04.2025, Aleksandrovskoye.
The so-called consumerist society in Russia was built not over 30 years but for a much longer period, political scientist and philosopher Sergey Kurginyan wrote in an article “War and Peace” from the issue of the Essence of Time newspaper published on April 1.
In the article, Kurginyan quoted Governor of Kurgan Region Vadim Shumkov, who suggested a correlation between the demographic crisis in Russia and the formation of a consumerist society.
“We have been building a consumerist society over 30 years, but a consumerist society does not need children. Children cannot be consumed… We need to revise the entire paradigm that we followed over the recent decades,” Shumkov said in December 2024.
Kurginyan expressed solidarity with Shumkov’s approach, in particular that an increase in birth rate cannot be bought for money.
“However, I must argue with one of the statements of the Kurgan governor, that it was only 30 years that we were building a consumerist society,” the political scientist noted.
According to Kurginyan, over all the post-Soviet years, indeed, the process of building a consumerist society was “desperate and passionate,” but it did not differ much from what the USSR was turning to under Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev.
“Certainly, even the late Soviet society was much healthier than the post-Soviet one. But was it really free from the consumerist virus?” the philosopher asked.
Kurginyan reminded, in particular, a play “Searching for Joy” by Viktor Rozov written in 1957 and put on the screen in 1960.
Lenochka from the play “Searching for Joy” is obsessed by consumerism, and she wants to “obtain everything” that she believes is necessary for a decent living. She is told, “You will never obtain everything, because you are a bottomless pit!”
“The reader understands that Lenochka eventually wins. And that she was increasingly assertive,” the leader of Essence of Time noted.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
