The Social and Political Orientations of the Young People of Siberia

Abstract

The social emergence of young people in today's Russia is taking place under difficult conditions. There is an ongoing reevaluation of many values; the dictatorship of the Marxist-Leninist state ideology is receding into the past, and, along with it, the system of communist upbringing of the rising generation. By the end of the 1970s, this system had in many ways lost its former power, and upbringing work in the spirit of Marxism-Leninism had become mere ritual. These days, the shaping of young people's social and political consciousness is largely going on haphazardly, under the influence of factors that have been little studied. It would seem vitally essential, therefore, to study the social orientations of young people and the character and forms of their political involvement.