Infantile terrorists: why young people do not understand the consequences of their actions (2023)

In Krasnodar, according to local media, a 19-year-old Russian was detained, who, along with friends, planned to derail a train. To do this, he, acting on instructions from the Ukrainian special services, set fire to a cabinet with relay equipment. During interrogation, the guy with tears in his eyes said that he did not think about the consequences. “For sabotage, and this, for a second, is a particularly serious crime, young people are paid from 5 to 10 thousand rubles,” Alexander Grebenkin, deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, noted earlier.

The country is increasingly "tearing" the infrastructure - either the railway, or power transmission towers. For one committed terrorist attack, dozens are prevented.

They do not see the difference between virtuality and reality

- This year, intelligence officers managed to stop attempts to commit sabotage on the railway with the participation of young people. There were many underage players of virtual spaces among them,” explained Alexander Grebenkin, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. - All these stories are about the crippled life of teenagers, who, due to their stupidity, are sometimes unaware of the inevitability of punishment. They naively believe that it is possible to prepare and carry out a terrorist attack completely anonymously and with impunity. At the same time, according to the law, those responsible for sabotage and terrorism face a very serious punishment - up to life imprisonment.

Child psychologist Irina Levashova believes:

- It is not in vain that the special services "work" with fans of computer games. Children, whose psyche has not yet settled down, and whose life experience is minimal, often cannot draw a clear line between the virtual and real worlds. In the computer game, they shoot, kill and die. It would seem - all this for fun. Not really. Deeper layers of the psyche take everything that happens seriously. On this, in particular, the effect of learning is based - including in animals. When a kitten chases a soft toy around the apartment, he understands that this is not a live mouse. But still he drives - he learns to hunt. When a child plays "war" - on the playground or computer screen, he also forms certain behavioral patterns. And when he is offered to arrange a real explosion, he often perceives this as an element of the game. She's just offline now. Yes, this is infantilism. But its roots are not in computer games.

As the expert explained, the main reason for such infantilism of adolescents is the absence of real difficulties in life that need to be overcome.

“Earlier, when Russia was a peasant country, children could not be infantile, because from an early age they worked, from the age of 12–13 they were on an equal footing with adults,” says the psychologist. - During the period of urbanization, they were waiting for production, and the guys also served in the army. At 16, a young person was generally considered to be fully grown. In a post-industrial society, full maturation takes at best 23-25 ​​years. Moreover, the larger the city, the higher the family income, the more comfortable life, the later young people grow up, that is, they enter a life where they have to fight for a place in the sun.

Undermined the paths on the assignment from the messenger

One of, alas, typical acts of terrorism occurred in January in Moscow. The Federal Security Service announced the arrest of three teenagers. According to the FSB, the eighth grade students of the city of Chekhov, through Telegram, came into contact with unknown people who offered them to commit sabotage on the railway tracks, on the stretch of the Kursk direction to the Moscow region, for money.

“The Federal Security Service of Russia for the city of Moscow and the Moscow Region, together with employees of the Linear Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia at the Moscow-Kurskaya station, stopped the illegal activities of three minor residents of the city of Chekhov, Moscow Region, who damaged transport infrastructure facilities on the railway section of the Kursk direction,” the department said.

According to the FSB, the eighth-graders carried out the order by damaging the railway tracks. The students were so stupid that they took care of the evidence for the prosecution - they filmed their crime on video in order to get money. But they will probably get time.

- Responsibility under Article 281 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - "Sabotage" - comes, according to the law, from the age of 14, - explained Anatoly Meshcheryakov, lawyer of the Moscow Bar Association. - Since in this case the crime was a group one and there was a preliminary conspiracy, the young people face a term of twelve years. They wanted to derail the train, but they will probably derail their lives.

Pacifist Daria Trepova

However, not only teenagers fall under the influence of Western intelligence services, but also quite successful, it would seem, young people. So, for example, the terrorist Darya Trepova, who staged an explosion in a cafe in St. Petersburg, which killed the military commander Vladlen Tatarsky and injured about 40 visitors, is already 26 years old. But mind, as they say, has not acquired.

“I am extremely sorry for what happened, I pray for the health of the victims and will try to organize a fundraiser for the recovery of the victims of the tragedy. So that my regret does not look cynical, I’ll add that I survived, apparently, purely by chance,” Daria Trepova said in an interview with the Rotunda telegram channel. “Most of all I want to die right now. I replay the events over and over in my head. Rapper Kanye West once said: "I brought you not peace, but a sword." And I keep thinking how it happened that I did not notice the sword in my hands. Why did I easily believe that there was nothing dangerous in the package that I was asked to deliver...

Trepova added that she "has always been against violence, which is why she adhered to a pacifist position."

“Well, you yourself understand how they took advantage of this,” the terrorist complained.

Political scientist Grigory Savelyev believes:

- There is an outrageous infantilism and extremely low erudition. She is 26, and she does not even know that the phrase “I did not bring peace to you, but a sword” was said by Jesus Christ. If she did not understand that the bust contained explosives, then she was simply very stupid. And if she understood, then also a small mind. Now there are cameras everywhere. Arrange an explosion in a big city and not get caught only by special services. Yes, even if you're lucky. By the way, the fact that Trepova was not liquidated after the terrorist act, oddly enough, speaks in favor of her stupidity: she was probably used in the dark. She did not communicate, and therefore does not know by sight the real organizers of the terrorist attack.

Otherwise, she would have been killed in order to cut off access to the personnel of the SBU or the GUR, who are probably in Russia even now - they are recruiting new fools to carry out terrorist attacks.

“And me for what?”

Infantilism and terrorism, oddly enough, go hand in hand.

- My good friend, colleague, now deceased, once fought with Bandera in the forests of Western Ukraine. Let me remind you, they operated there until 1960, - says military expert, retired Colonel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Andrey Zemtsev. - There were a lot of young people among the "forest brothers". So, when they were caught and prepared for execution on the spot, many began to shout: what are you talking about, why, but I didn’t do anything wrong! Many were sincerely sure that everything that was happening was almost a game. Such hide-and-seek in the forest with a machine gun and periodic shooters. And this, I repeat, was more than half a century ago.

The expert recalled that the terrorist who gave impetus to the outbreak of the First World War, Gavrila Princip, was then only 18 years old.

- The paradox is that he killed "the wrong one": Archduke Franz Ferdinand took a rather pro-Serbian position. In other words, he committed a stupidity that led to disastrous consequences. This is the case when a person has a lot of energy and determination, but not much intelligence, - Andrey Zemtsev explained.

Betting on young outcasts

Grigory Savelyev is sure that it is no coincidence that the Western intelligence services rely on young people.

“Most young people have not yet decided on their life, they are looking for themselves,” the expert explained. - In the days of the USSR, this fact was understood and children were kept under supervision: Octoberites, pioneers, the Komsomol, the party. In other words, the young man was always in the team that looked after him. Moreover, there were clear life paths in front of him, social elevators operated: the Komsomol, sports, production, science. When the USSR collapsed, the youth were left to their own devices. Some of the athletes went into serious crime, and the phenomenon of "lads" appeared. Someone went to groups of football fans, someone - to local subcultures: punks, goths, emo, skinheads and so on. And someone went into politics. And the most radical one.

Let me remind you: in the 1990s, the only youth political organization was the NBP (banned in the Russian Federation. - "VM") - an unregistered National Bolshevik Party. And one of its projects, yes, smelled very much of terrorism: the NBP tried to create the so-called Other Russia in the territory of North-Eastern Kazakhstan. Create by armed uprising. Later, when the NBP was defeated, the foreign agent Navalny began to actively engage in young people, and the phenomenon of “piling up” arose. Interestingly, most of them were not even students, but high school students - it’s easier for them to fool their brains.

According to Savelyev, Western intelligence services will continue to rely on young people. And above all - on the marginal.

“The marginal in this case is not a bum sleeping in a ditch, but a person who has not found his own way in life,” Grigory explained. - Pay attention to the terrorist Daria Trepova. Who is she? And don't say it right away. She studied medicine, quit, worked as a model, freelance designer, traded vintage clothes, was both a vegan, a feminist and an "oppositionist". In general, she, as they say, "in life" do not understand who. Marginal.

A person who does not understand what he needs, how he sees his future. This is the sign of an infantile - an adult child who can easily be turned into a terrorist.

The political scientist recalled that many professional Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, including terrorists from Boris Savinkov's militant organization, belonged to the category of the same outcasts.

- Take the same Yakov Blyumkin - the murderer of the German ambassador Mirbach. He is a typical marginal. Or, for example, the militant Grigory Gershuni, who organized assassination attempts on many top officials, is also a marginal, says Savelyev.

Offline only

According to the expert, there is only one way to counteract youth radicalism - systematic work with young people. Moreover, at the state level.

- No, it is not necessary to create movements like "Ours". As practice has shown, this is often a waste of budgetary funds, the political scientist argues. - First of all, it is necessary to organize more free clubs and sports sections. It makes sense to revive children's tourism - a very powerful Soviet movement. Of course, we also need patriotic movements, like Yunarmiya. But the child should have the widest choice of useful and developing pastime. But there should not be a situation where either Yunarmiya, or social networks and computer games. It is necessary to involve a young person in activities in a team, and definitely offline - in order to understand who he is, what he is, what he breathes. To really work with him and educate. Otherwise, we will lose the younger generation first, and then the country that it will inherit. We still have time to take care of the youth.

NUMBER

20 years in prison is the most common criminal punishment under Article 281 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - “Sabotage”.

Most of the known terrorists were quite young, up to 30 years old, people. For example, the Jackal Carlos (Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez) committed his most famous terrorist attack - the capture of 68 OPEC oil ministers in Vienna in December 1975 - at the age of 26. Amir al-Khattab became a terrorist at 19. Timothy McVeigh, a US sergeant who blew up the federal administration building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people and injured more than 500, committed a terrorist attack at the age of 25. Boris Savinkov, who organized the assassinations of Interior Minister Plehve and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, was at that moment 25 and 26 years old respectively.

OPINION

Dmitry Zhuravlev, political scientist:

- When Western intelligence agencies recruit young people, they do not understand what is happening. For them, this is part of a computer game in which they literally live. The current society is arranged in such a way that even at the age of 14–18, a young person practically does not face real life and its difficulties. Parents reliably protect from the outside world. And the computer creates a virtual world: with friends, games, movies. And when such a young man receives an offer to blow up something for five thousand rubles, he perceives it as a quest - entertainment, for which they also pay.

If then such a terrorist is brought to the scene of a train wreck, he will experience a real shock and will be psychologically broken. After all, he sincerely did not understand that the consequences would be such. The problem is also that even many intelligence officers with whom I spoke also sincerely do not understand the danger of such "computer" teenagers. “What can these kids do? Yes, they can only move the mouse! In fact, unfortunately, they are capable of much. If only because such people have no brakes. When we read police reports and are horrified by cases of teenage cruelty, we must understand: children have killed so many monsters and torn off so many heads that they no longer realize where are virtual events and where are real ones.

And virtual they smoothly and imperceptibly for themselves translate into life. What should we adults do in such a situation? The main thing, in my opinion, is to personally communicate with children, talk with them, take them outside, literally introduce them into the real world.

Otherwise, then their real world may become a cell in a pre-trial detention center or a barracks in a strict regime colony.