The “back to school” issue of the Russian Social Science Review is often devoted to themes related to education and young people. The current issue takes as its focus the rising generation of Russians born and raised during the Putin ascendancy. In our first article, Elena Omel'chenko draws on the literature of cultural sociology from Emile Durkheim to Jeffrey Alexander to advance a flexible conception of young people's reality. Describing one aspect of that reality, Ivaniushina and Aleksandrov document the menu of extracurricular activities in which today's youth have participated. Their data show that as children progress through school, there is a sharp rise in the place of fitness activities such as weightlifting and aerobics in the mix of games and sports; the authors attribute this pattern to maturation, but Putin's influence almost certainly plays a role here. The results reported in Irina Tsvetkova's richly textured article on the “patriotic values” of high school students and their parents in Russia's Motor City repay careful reading. It would be interesting to see the survey repeated to reveal whether the eventful intervening years have had any impact on this city's many discontents. D.G. Davydov's piece on the causes of extremism among Russian youth marshals the insights of Lev Vygotsky, Theodor Adorno, and Erik Erikson, but offers no fresh remedies. In our next selection, Andreeva and Andreeva discuss surveys of the views of college students and the wider public on the proper role of the Russian Orthodox Church. In summary, while an overwhelming majority of respondents identify themselves as Orthodox, their commitment to a secular state and rejection of church hegemony over such matters as contraception remain strongly held. We close with an article on the professional and ethical values of medical students.
