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Part 16: Harvest

Chapter 70: The Next Generation

The café on Pokrovka Street was a glorious, chaotic symphony of the new Russia. The air was thick with the smell of strong coffee and the sound of a dozen passionate, overlapping arguments. Elena Petrova, now in her late seventies, sat at a small corner table, a quiet observer of the world she had helped create. The students who filled the café were fearless.

Her granddaughter, Anya, arrived with her friends, a boisterous, clever, and deeply argumentative collection of young minds. They greeted Elena with a touching reverence, and then immediately, without a second thought, pulled her into the ferocious debate they had been having on the street.

“Babushka Elena, you can settle this,” said a young man with a mess of curly hair, a libertarian firebrand. “Anya thinks the new emissions tax is a triumph for the nation. I think it’s another form of state tyranny that stifles innovation!”

“It is not tyranny to save the planet from lazy capitalists!” a young woman with fierce, intelligent eyes shot back. “The Dividend gives us a safety net, it doesn’t give corporations the right to poison our air!”

Elena listened to them, a slow, profound, and deeply joyful smile spreading across her face. It was the sound of it all. The sound of their loud, passionate, fearless voices. The sound of young people openly, loudly, and fiercely criticizing their own government in the middle of a crowded public space.

The young libertarian, eager to win an ally, turned to her. “Babushka Elena, you must agree with me, surely? This new tax is an outrage!”

Elena’s smile widened. She didn’t take a side in their debate. She simply savored the fact that the debate was happening at all. “It is a wonderful argument,” she said, her voice soft but full of a deep, resonant satisfaction. “A truly beautiful argument.”

As the debate wound down, the libertarian pulled out his phone to pay for his coffee. He tapped it on the reader, a small chime confirming the payment through his secure Digital ID, the universal system Kirill’s ministry had built.

The young social democrat was still fuming about the budget. “Let’s see where the money is actually going,” she muttered, pulling out her own phone. She opened an app, the public ledger for their city district. Her finger scrolled down the screen. “Ha! I knew it! Look at this! Twenty million rubles for ‘beautification and refurbishment’ of the mayor’s office! We’re filing a public complaint right now.” She began to tap furiously on her screen.

They did all of this as casually, as effortlessly, as breathing.

Elena watched them, and her understanding of the victory, her son’s victory, became complete. It was not just that this new generation was free to argue. It was that they had the tools of a transparent, functional, and accountable state literally at their fingertips. They were not just subjects to be ruled; they were citizens, armed with data.

Anya, seeing the look of quiet, profound wonder on her grandmother’s face, squeezed her hand. “It’s cool, right, Babushka?” she whispered. “We can see everything.”

Elena looked at the young, empowered faces, at the seamless fusion of their passionate debate and the powerful technology they commanded. The revolution hadn’t just changed the leaders. It had upgraded the entire operating system of the nation.

The Discourse, 70: Measuring Success in Generational Change

Section 70.1: The "Fish in Water" Analogy of Freedom
The students' casual and unthinking embrace of their right to public, political speech is a key indicator of a successful democratic transition. It illustrates what can be called the "fish in water" phenomenon. For Elena's generation, who lived under repression, freedom is a conscious, precious, and constantly appreciated thing. For the new generation, who have grown up in it, freedom is simply the water they swim in. They do not consciously think about it. Their ability to be "ungrateful" for this freedom, to take it for granted as their natural birthright, is, paradoxically, the ultimate proof that the revolution has succeeded.

Section 70.2: The Shift from "Existential" to "Incremental" Politics
The subject of the students' debate is as significant as its existence. They are not arguing about the grand, existential themes that defined Elena's struggle: war vs. peace, tyranny vs. freedom. They are arguing about the normal, everyday business of a functioning democracy: tax policy, environmental regulations, foreign policy. This signifies a crucial transition from a "politics of survival" to a "politics of incrementalism." The political questions are no longer about the fundamental nature of the state, but about the specific direction the state should take, a sign of a healthy, mature political culture.

Section 70.3: The "Infrastructure of Trust"
The casual, everyday use of the Digital ID and the public ledger app demonstrates the final, crucial component of the new social contract: the "infrastructure of trust." The freedom to speak is a "soft" freedom. The ability to see, in real time, how public money is being spent is a "hard," structural freedom. By seamlessly integrating the systems built by Kirill (digital services) and the principles demanded by Yashina (transparency), the state has created an environment where the citizens do not have to "trust" their government in the old, blind sense. They can verify. This verifiable transparency, so normal to the younger generation, is the ultimate antidote to the conspiratorial paranoia of the old regime and the true foundation of a stable, modern democratic state.