Sociologists have discovered an amazing thing: in Russia, it seems, the eternal conflict of generations has been exhausted. At least today’s youth in many ways shares both the ideals and fears of their fathers. True, it is difficult to call this a reason for joy. Why? We publish an article in the Kommersant newspaper, which gives an exhaustive answer.
According to all the latest opinion polls of young people – VCIOM, FOM, NRU HSE – it turns out that the conflict between fathers and children in Russia no longer exists, writes . It used to be – and 100 years ago, and a quarter of a century ago – it was the youth who came out on the side of new ideas and values.
But the “children of perestroika” did something unprecedented: they brought up a generation that fully shares their fears and disappointments, dreaming only of stability and material prosperity.
Today’s students are just like their parents. If the former are waiting for changes, then only those that will not cost them anything, and dream of a state that will take care of them. Ogonyok understood the moods of today’s youth.
The HSE Political Research Laboratory has been looking for an elite in Russia for eight years now. The head of the laboratory, Valeria Casamara, speaks briefly about the results of the search: “This is our pain.”
Neither high-ranking political groups, nor economic bosses, nor creative personalities, if you carefully interview them, are fundamentally different from the “average Russian.”
Everyone’s planning horizon is about the same, their views and life practices are the same
In the entire vast country there is no reference group that would be suitable for the role of the avant-garde and the color of the nation, ready to answer for everything.
In such a situation, as a rule, the last hopes are placed on the youth.
This suggestion prompted HSE researchers to analyze the values of the most advanced part of young people—students, using an unprecedented amount of empirical material: they interviewed more than 6 students from 109 universities located in all federal districts of Russia.
Signs of elitism, readiness to become agents of development in the ranks of the youth were sought with prejudice. Found, however, something else.
Take care of us
From the pleasant: modern students are actually the first generation in Russia that does not experience nostalgia for the USSR. They cheerfully look to the future: 80 percent are sure that they have more opportunities for self-realization now than in the days of their parents.
They are satisfied with life, health and the quality of their education. Apparently, their income is not so bad either: only 32 percent are forced to combine their studies with work.
Moreover, today’s students are unexpectedly calm about those who know how to earn money, and 45 percent of them are even convinced that it is simply a shame for a middle-aged and healthy person in Russia to be poor.
Finally, they sincerely believe that the will to succeed, intelligence, talent and ingenuity mean more to us than connections and acquaintances, and they do not mind doing business.
Having received such data, one could conclude that today’s 17-22-year-olds are in favor of an active initiative, they have sufficient resources to show it, and will provide the country with the desired modernization.
But the researchers had the imprudence to deepen the usual questionnaire, discovering something unexpected.
“They no longer say that they want to live “like in the USSR”, because all the main characteristics that attracted them to the USSR are found by students in modern Russia,” Valeria Casamara explained. “After the Crimea, nostalgia disappeared: they like to live here and now.
Along the way, it turned out that communism for a single generation did not mean freedom, equality, brotherhood at all, but patriotism and great power.
The young men and women who wanted to return to the USSR were not going to dispossess anyone (wealth is held in high esteem), they did not want to tremble before their superiors (most are sure that “fear should not be the determining motive in relation to power and society”), but dreamed of parades and victories, about belonging to the “power” simply by the fact of birth.
It is no coincidence that 68 percent of Russian students are firmly convinced that our country can exist only as a great power. Moreover, the main characteristics of Russia, which young people are proud of, are exceptionally extensive – this is a large territory and population.
“The same 68 percent of students do not want to go abroad (even for temporary study/work), believing that it is important for them to be useful to their country here and now,” said Anna Sorokina, Leading Researcher at the HSE Laboratory of Political Studies. – The number of patriots is especially large in the Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as in the North Caucasian Federal District. Only 26 percent of young students today are thinking about emigrating.
The study, by the way, found a significant correlation between the level of patriotism and the presence of a passport: the more patriots there are in a particular subject of the Russian Federation, the fewer foreigners there are. Least of all, of course, in the Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as in the North Caucasian Federal District.
According to their ideological views, the “grandchildren of perestroika” also turned out to be leftists. Maybe they talk about the benefits of entrepreneurship, about the attractiveness of wealth, but as far as the state system is concerned, they insist: the state should take care of everyone.
A modest 70 percent, who agree that social guarantees should be provided only to those who cannot take care of themselves, stand against almost 22 percent of young people who demand full social guarantees. Even their parents are “righter” in this respect.
Too “on its own”
Another important feature of young people, which has traditionally encouraged researchers, is the desire for self-realization.
It was assumed that this desire somehow automatically leads to a willingness to improve life around oneself, take responsibility for one’s future and engage in “innovative practices”.
But already in the early 2010s, sociologists from the Levada Center began to sound the alarm: perhaps, fixing the desire for “self-realization,” our surveys actually revealed a desire for “self-assertion” among young people, and for empty self-assertion “that does not generate new meanings”?
“In Western practice, “self-realization” and individualism are considered something generally positive, because the horizontal ties in society are strong enough there and do not allow these “self-” to take on destructive proportions, notes Natalya Zorkaya, head of the socio-political research department. Levada Center. “But since we have weak horizontal ties, in the Russian context, these phenomena must be assessed with great caution.
Young people have always been distinguished by the fact that they were more focused on themselves: they are a society within a society. However, it does not at all follow from this that, growing up, they will become carriers of new ideals and will provide us with a successful “transit”. This would be too superficial a conclusion.
So the researchers from the National Research University Higher School of Economics faced the side effects of the youth “self”:
– In the survey, the phrase “I want to fulfill myself” often popped up, says Valeria Casamara. – It seems to be great: a person looks to the future. But what does she mean? And here’s what: I want to travel, I want to look beautiful, be an interesting person, have friends, and the state must make sure that I have all this.
Students want to live beautifully in a strong and rich country, but they don’t see at all that every medal has a downside. Let’s say they are good at entrepreneurial activities and don’t mind being “businessmen”.
But when we ask: how much would you like to be engaged in a new risky business in your work, it turns out that no one wants this. They want stability, salaries, prospects, and they don’t want risk. That is, arguing sensibly, they do not want to do anything …
Young Russians feel the same way about reforms. If you ask them directly: do the country need reforms – and not only in the sphere of economy, but also in politics – 75 percent of students cheerfully answer: they are needed!
But only one conclusion can be drawn from this – young people are not allergic to the word “reforms”. But when it comes to practice, the majority of young Russians turn out to be supporters of “fine settings”.
The ideology of “fine tuning”, which, according to scientists from the Higher School of Economics, is professed by our students, says the following: everything in the country should be corrected and reformed in such a way that it does not hurt us in any way. And that we, of course, did not take any part in this.
– Students today, like most Russians, are dissatisfied with the quality of the Russian elite, – continues Valeria Casamara. — But unlike many other Russians, they could hope that over time they themselves will become this elite … But no. The view of the elite is exclusively passive, external.
Moreover, this statement is also true in relation to students of the elite universities themselves – Moscow State University, MGIMO, whom we separately interviewed a couple of years ago. They are no different from the bulk of Russian students, and the students themselves are no different from the mass of Russians.
Minus one conflict
Moreover, in general, cheerful students retain even the phantom pains and fears of their older compatriots.
For example, 66 percent of boys and girls are afraid of the threat of a world war, 69 percent are worried about the uncertainty of the future of our country, and 55 percent are worried about the threat of the destruction of modern civilization …
When the HSE Policy Research Lab conducted a similar survey in Princeton, it turned out that a tiny number of American students were afraid of something like this. It is we who cannot do anything without the image of an enemy, and the heart – at least sing, at least don’t sing – is constantly anxious in the chest.
The fears of young Russians, of course, are supported by the modern information field, but even its influence for such a persistent reproduction of phantoms would not be enough.
Note that students are no longer a TV audience, the vast majority of the children surveyed learn news from the Vkontakte social network (and here, by the way, the assertion that the transition from TV to the Internet radically changes a person’s views and makes him “more liberal”) is refuted.
The statement is refuted that the transition from TV to the Internet radically changes the views of a person and makes him “more liberal”
Phantoms, statements, and attitudes seem to reproduce well in families, in the innermost depths of society. This month, the FOM interviewed teenagers aged 15-17, asking them what news “from the life of the country and the world” they have recently discussed with their parents.
Here are the top 5 topics: the terrorist attack in St. Petersburg, the events in Ukraine, the unstable situation in the world – wars and terrorist attacks, the situation in Syria, the protests on March 26.
What picture of the world can be in the head of a teenager who grew up on such “news from life”? Certainly apocalyptic. If you want to do something here … The ideals of a beautiful and rich life without problems in this regard can also be perceived as escapism in view of the uncomfortable reality.
“We thought a lot about the results of our research, trying to understand why modern students in Russia seem so infantile: they want everything at once, not wanting to participate in anything,” says Valeria Casamara. – One of the explanations may be related to the peculiarities of their upbringing.
The collapse of the USSR hit the parents of today’s students hard – these are the youth of the 1990s, who had to make their way in the new conditions. Whatever ideals were in the minds of those young people, having matured, they put material values in the first place.
And, having given birth to children – today’s students – she really wanted to provide them with a “decent life.” If you didn’t leave your child an apartment, you can’t help him financially, even with your pension, you are a bad parent by the standards of modern Russia.
Hyper-custody has led to the infantilism of children. Let’s put it this way: education in the spirit of Protestant ethics did not take root among us – and today we see the consequences.
Perhaps, over time, it is the failure of the “education reform” that will be called the biggest failure of the 1990s. But so far it is not customary to think about that period: according to the Levada Center, 90 percent of young people, in principle, do not know what happened in August 1991. The beginning of a new Russia is securely erased from the memory of both students and their parents in order to live “like in the USSR.”
And someone may even like the fact that modern students are very similar to the older generation: for example, VTsIOM at the end of last year, having discovered the exhaustion of the conflict between “fathers and children” on Russian soil, interpreted this fact as a guarantee of stability.
They brought up their own kind – is this not happiness? .. But now you don’t have to expect anything new from them and teach them responsible behavior – it’s better to help financially.