Not Nationalists

Russian Teenagers' Soulful A-politics

Bibliographic Data

ID12299249
AuthorsF Markowitz (0000-0002-8845-3850, corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume51
Issue7
Pages1183-1198
Publication date1999-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEurope Asia Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0966-8136 • E-ISSN: 1465-3427
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09668139998499
OpenAlexW2077841336
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited21

IN THE LATE 1980S, as the USSR began to fracture along its republics' faultlines, a tide of fear washed across Western media about what was perceived as an alarming rise in nationalist sentiment in Russia. In 1987 the organisation Pamyat' was formed on the rallying cry of Russia's return to its Slavic roots and a call for the eradication of unhealthy foreign influences from its culture and territory.' Because some of the most virulent nationalistic phrases came from the eloquent mouths and prolific pens of prominent members of the intellectual elite,2 and because patriotic group demonstrations attracted crowds of thousands, the possibility of 'popular sentiments' becoming state-wide sanctions against non-Slavic individuals was not to be ignored.3 At the same time, Soviet Russian observers and those from the West expressed concerns about the impact of glasnost' and globalisation on the young. Reports of the Lyubery, young men from Moscow's working class exurbs who sought out hippies, ethnic minorities and other non-conformists for violent confrontation, fanned the fires of this anxiety. A ready explanation for these attacks was that they were xenophobic reactions to the new national policy of 'openness' and fears of the unknown. Igor S. Kon warned parents and educators of young people's 'social inertia' and their propensity to be swayed by strident ideologies should they fail to develop critical thinking and a solid foundation of democratic values.4 Even after the Lyubery disappeared from the youth scene, a strong distrust, even fear of youth persisted in the Soviet Union as it changed course.5 Some social analysts, mainly British and American, pointed positively to the flurry of young people's stylistic experimentation and cultural production.6 The Russian sociologist Tatiana Zaslavskaya and the American educator Deborah Adelman lauded teenagers for shrugging off political apathy,7 but most others reported less happily on their single-minded pursuit of kaif, or fun.8 In the main, Soviet-Russian journalists and academicians decried what they perceived as the new money-oriented 'moral vacuum' that sucked teenagers into its anti-social vortex and led them to peddling, prostitution and worse.9 Leaving behind the specifics of Russia for a moment, social psychologists have long proclaimed that it is during adolescence, a time of 'betwixt and between' or 'storm and stress', that individuals are prone to challenge the foundations of their society and seek alternatives. Examples from recent history, including the spectacular rise of the Komsomol in the early years of the USSR, the almost mystical attraction of the Hitler Youth for German teenagers during the interwar years,10 and the power

Criminology · Democracy · Distrust · Elite · Ideology · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sanctions · Slavic languages · Sociology · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Gender Studies · History · Law · Soviet and Russian History

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