Postsoviet “ambivalence of consciousness” of the Ukrainian youth (based on the poll “Soviet past and its impact upon the life of contemporary youth”)

Abstract

In September – November 2021, the project team “Soviet Past: (Re)thinking of History” conducted an online-poll for school youth of 14-18 year-old under the common title “Soviet Past and Its Impact upon the Life of Contemporary Youth.” This was one of the first polls focused on the views and understandings of the youngest Ukrainian citizens.This article examines the poll results within a broader context of ongoing discussions about the impact of the Soviet past upon the life of contemporary Ukrainians and about the phenomenon of “post-Sovietness” on the territories of the former Soviet Union. The poll was conducted on the eve of the Russo-Ukrainian war, which broke on February 24, 2022. It therefore fixed those behavioral patterns and value orientations of the so-called “generation of Ukrainian independence” that are defined as “ambivalent” by sociologists: they simultaneously testify to the declarative break of the Ukrainian youth with the Soviet past and this past’s continuing impact upon its present.The Russo-Ukrainian war will undeniably impact Ukrainians’ attitude towards the Soviet past. It will most probably cause a complete and final symbolic break with this past, especially at the level of policy making and public presentation. Still, as the author argues, we cannot determine at the moment its deeper impact upon personal perceptions, value orientations, and behavioral models of Ukrainians, including of the youngest ones, which are analyzed in this article.