Pete Townshend of the British rock group The Who wrote “My Generation”as a social protest back in 1965. The term “generation gap” got a strong footing in that era, particularly in the United States and Great Britain. It was social upheaval on a generational divide. It even gave rise to those famous and ridiculous words uttered by radical dissident Jerry Rubin: Never trust anyone over 30! The ‘Establishment’ became a proper noun derisively characterizing the older generation --- those who ran things.

Now here we are in 2012 and the whole generation gap thing is beginning to take hold in Russia. It comes in a much milder form for sure, but it is gaining sufficient traction to prompt suggestion that it could end in a bloody revolution (read more). That is, if the country’s current political leadership does not listen to a discontented new generation of citizens demanding reforms.

Multi-billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is the leading potential upset candidate against Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in the upcoming March election. According to many ordinary Russians, and some experts, a Prokhorov candidacy may be nothing more than a piece of political footwork put together by Putin & Company intended to split any serious opposition. Prokhorov says not. It’s hard to tell at this point. His words echo the Putin detractors and may possibly be leading them.

Even outgoing President Dmitri Medvedev has been critical. He too has called for reforms in the Russian economy and in business practices, although this may be more political stoogery manufactured by Czar Putin. The whole Putin-Medvedev office-swapping does seem somewhat transparent.

The mounting public antagonism against the current government regime is primarily driven by Russia’s fast growing middle class. They are an electorate who are effectively saying they won’t tolerate more of that thinly-disguised Putinesque“managed democracy.” And it’s ironic because these are salad-days for the Russian people. Russia’s superior growth in the new millennium has spurred personal wealth to the point where the country now boasts the third-most billionaires in the world (Moscow leads all cities worldwide in billionaire residents) and a rising middle class that has no one looking back.

A preponderance of the new electorate doesn’t much remember things Soviet. They don’t really care about the folded tent of a Stalinist and post-Stalinist era that ran until a decade before the end of the 20th century. That’s the way it goes with a generational separation of time and mind. Things soon-forgotten are things not remembered.