Since the collapse of the USSR, the post-Soviet states have attempted to establish their legitimacy through a process of nation-building, involving the creation of new systems of social meaning and order. In Russia, this has also involved establishing market institutions, as well as resocializing the populace to behave like rational individualists. Naturally, the chief object of such efforts was initially the still-malleable generation of young people that came of age during perestroika or after the fall of communism. Increasingly, however, a wide range of objective indicators suggested that the country’s youth was facing a veritable crisis of impoverishment, ill health, and alienation. By the mid-to-late 1990s, this led to mounting anxiety that Russia was truly on the verge of losing a generation, which in turn spawned a state-led effort to rectify the problems of youth. Unfortunately, achieving this was extraordinarily difficult, since the dislocation of young people happened to coincide with a sudden, massive exposure to globalization, as well as a general breakdown in social organization, economic function, and government capacity. […]
Memo #:
384
Series:
1
PDF:
PDF URL:
http://www.gwu.edu/~ieresgwu/assets/docs/ponars/pm_0384.pdf
