Fascinating essay from 1987 on Soviet youth, just a couple of years before the collapse of the USSR nytimes.com/1987/07/26/mag…
"years of eroding official credibility...Gorbachev's efforts to revive the Soviet Union depend on his ability to engage the young...The country's young are—not universally, but in sufficient quantity to spell trouble—spoiled, alienated, and indifferent"
"Soviet analysts have discovered a general failure of the institutions designed to mold Russian children into bright-eyed young Socialists. Komsomol [communist youth organization] doesn't work, school doesn't work, the army doesn't work, even work doesn't work."
More on Soviet youth: "That teenagers, unlike their parents, have not had to work to supplement the family income is a matter of national pride....experts fear the result has been a generation that expects to be supported well into its 20s, and then to find cushy, well-paid jobs"
The role of the Soviet war in Afghanistan: "The war in Afghanistan..has played a part in this disenchantment...At least half a million young men have served in Afghanistan, an estimated 12,000 have died, and many more have returned with injuries, drug habits or deepened cynicism"
The Soviet youth had a variety of different responses to malaise: Robbing wealthy people, burning cars and houses, lifting weights, self-discipline and stoicism
"I ask my students, 'What do you think is going to happen next? Will things change? Will we live better?' Not an optimistic word from anyone. Already, at 17, they don't believe."
"material conditions alone do not explain everything that happens in the world...the Soviet Union collapsed between 1989 and 1991...The military power of the Soviet state had never been greater, but its authority — a psychological and not a material condition — was non-existent"
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