Youth Activism in Russia in Context of Global Transformation

Abstract

The article criticizes traditional approach to the evaluation of civic stand of modern Russianyouth. Interest to youth activism on the part of academic circles and politicians throughout the XX century was rather spontaneous, and usually was expressed in response to public manifestations of «uncontrolled youth energy». Comparison of Russian and western constructs of a «youth question» makes the consequences of direct inclusion of «adult» ideology in youth reality more appreciable, whereas the fact that youth is deprived of the right to participate in construction of strategies of social development is confirmed by the object-exploiter attitude to youth both in the USSR (Russia), and in the west. Ideologically programmed idea of youth as of a homogeneous social group did not become a «history». In political and, partly, in academic texts transition from consideration of youth as of an object of purposeful state influence or resource of the future of the nation to consideration of youth as of a full subject of society is still rather a mere declaration. The author believes that conceptual divergences between the subjects of social policy directly influence priorities of modern youth policy.