The Social Condition of the Soviet and Post-Soviet Student Community

ABSTRACT

Research comparing students at the end of the Soviet period with those a decade later shows that the optimism tends to be more combined with pragmatism, individualism, and egoism. Youth who before were more likely to diverge on issues of personal and private concerns versus more abstract issues of justice and ideology have become more similar over time, with a greater emphasis on private individual concerns.

KEYWORDS:

• life goals
• Russian youth
• values

Notes

¹ Data from two studies are used: the All-Union study “The New Generation: Hopes, Goals, Ideals”—1991 (1,438 students from 40 cities throughout the Soviet Union were surveyed) and the international study “The New Generation: Hopes, Goals, Ideals”—2013 (3,707 students from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Armenia were surveyed).

² A detailed analysis of the attitudes of romantics and pessimists can be found in [4-5].