Despite the frequent "shushes" and well-meaning pleas to let their classmates be heard, 10- and 11-year-olds at Moscow's school number 220 created a bilious cacophony on a recent schoolday as they discussed their country with an earnestness seemingly beyond their years.
The younger generation's pulse is racing: The state of the world, it appears, has reached a crisis point that puts a new and terrifying element of risk in almost everything.
"Civilization has become worse and there are more things that can threaten your life," said Vadim Trishin. "Ovens, gas-cookers, they can all blow up, and then you can even burn your brain, and now televisions can give you cancer, and telephones can kill you too, and lots of people die from radio telephones because of the effect they have on your brain."
Have the last five years of change brought anything good?
Only the new merry-go-round in Gorky Park; imported soda water, rice, and ice-cream; and more information about the world around them. "It's easier to live when you know more," Misha Anfimov said.
But as in the West, some news events can seem more like entertainment.
"I liked the news when they attacked the White House," Ilya Subbotin recalled with glee. "That was very good. And remember when they said on the news, 'Sorry, we're being bombarded, so we'll have to stop broadcasting.'" All of them joined in the laughter, until someone mentioned the people that died. Then the children decided they would prefer stability and calm.
And lower prices. "The best president we ever had was when ice-cream cost 15 kopeks," said Yana Dryesyankina. Then came the many grievances so frequently voiced by their elders -- about crime, corruption, advertising, uncollected garbage and worst of all, investment funds. "They lie and then they keep on lying and they don't pay money to their investors," Misha observed.
But no matter how much they complain about the state of Russia today, the children have no desire to lead the country themselves.
"Presidents do nothing but sign papers and sit around for hours at meetings," said Simyon Byerchansky, who wants to be a policeman, "And then they go on trips to the USA. I'd rather stay at home."
If some twist of fate were to land them in the Kremlin, lowering prices would be at the top of the agenda. "Then I'd buy my parents a car, and I'd buy a computer for myself, because you can't do anything without a computer these days," Alyosha Potapkin said.
Asked if they themselves were happy, the consensus was "half and half." "It's no fun when it's too dangerous to play outside after dark," Denis Lyevchuk said.
Despite the children's pessimism, their teachers nevertheless have high hopes for them. "They're more open and sociable than their parents," said Russian language and literature teacher Irina Kryeslavskaya. "It's just difficult for them because they're stuck between their parents' ideas and traditions, and contemporary life, which is something completely different."
When it comes to improving that life, the children's aspirations remain close to home. Asked if he had a message for the world, to be printed in the newspaper, Ilya's answer was brief and to the point:
"Tell them not to turn off the elevator in my apartment building."
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