Russian Youth in Times of Change: Structural Changes and New Challenges to Political Socialization

Abstract

Today youth problems and, in broader terms, generation problems, succession of generations, sharing experience and acquiring new values, learning new social practices, are among the most important things required to keep the integrity of the society as a system and its development dynamics. There are some worry­ing trends characterizing the change of the youth place in the Russian society. Since the beginning of the XXI century, the number of young people aged 15‒29 has decreased in Russia by almost 10 million people, or 7% in the country's pop­ulation. This determines in the future an alarming level of demographic burden. Such quantitative proportions make us look forward with ever growing concerns. We will, among other things, have to carefully analyze the current situation of the youth in Russia. The article is focused on three most pressing blocks of problems and challenges faced by the modern youth. First, these are the chal­lenges of social stratification and social mobility of the youth, which builds a new hierarchical youth pyramid. Second, the youth situation and behavior in the labor market resulting from its conflicting changes and the new forms of employment. Third, changes in values, models of the sociocultural behavior, which are not the same for all the young people. The major case of such changes is the political socialization of the modern youth