Young people in post-Soviet Russia

During the course of the twentieth century, the Soviet Union rose and fell, and Russia re-emerged. The Russians were left “feeling robbed of a sense of place, of purpose and of identity” . By the mid-1990’s, Russia, while contending with the ups and downs of economic crisis and the health of its leaders, was trying to find its own course, attempting to resurrect past glories, learn from recent mistakes, and forge a place in a community of nations. Together with society, youth was going through a period of change in its ideological, economic and moral values. According to Martha Olcott, “it was Russian youth, who seemed to suffer disproportionately from the numerous social disorders in the USSR at the end of the decade”. Ilynsky talks about the widespread moral decay in Russia in the 1990’s and the lack of direction among many young people – “their poor understanding of freedom, lack of faith in politicians, growing sense of injustice and general concerns about what the future might bring”.

Russian identity is and has been a topic of continual argument, of conflicting claims, competing images, contradictory criteria. According to S. Franklin, “Russia is continually represented as a question, a field of possibilities, a set of contradictions”. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 even more intensified self-questioning in the “new” Russia started. Usually, such questions have been posed by the young population of Russia who happened to live in the period of global economic and ideological transitions. What kind of country is Russia to be? What has happened to young people in the post-Communist phase? The focus of this paper is how the changing economic, political and social geography of Russia affected the youth since the fall of communism in 1991. I will reflect upon the typical portrait and particular features of the post-Soviet youth. My research question is as follow: “What images, sentiments, and obligations do young Russians attribute to their homeland, and how do these contribute to an understanding of their notions of ethnicity, patriotism, and nationalism?”