Paul Goble
Staunton, Dec. 5 – Nearly 90 percent of Russians under the age of 35 don’t identify the rebirth of traditional Russian values or the recovery of their country’s status as a great power and aren’t prepared to pay higher taxes or sacrifice their style of life to achieve either, according to a new survey.
The result of the poll of 4,000 young people in 43 federal subjects that was conducted by sociologists at the Academy of Sciences, the Russian Institute of Strategic Research and the Higher School of Economics are presented in a new monograph, Youth and Russia of the Future (ehorussia.com/new/node/30066 and rbc.ru/economics/05/12/2023/656d9d649a79473c15b1fdd4
Almost 90 percent of young Russians did not say their government should pursue either national traditions or a return to the status of a superpower, the poll found. Only 11.2 percent listed the first, and only 13.3 percent the second. Instead, about a third of young Russians said the fight against corruption and observation of constitutional rights as most important.
And majorities of this cohort said they weren’t prepared to give up much in order to achieve Kremlin goals: 55 percent said they did not want to give up western goods, 52 percent said they didn’t want to stop using Western credit cards, and 69 percent said they were opposed to any restrictions on the use of the Internet.
Still more of young Russians said they were opposed to raising taxes to pay for Kremlin goals (87 percent) or freezing pay and pensions (86 percent). And just over two-thirds (68.1 percent) said they were against any sacrifices for the pursuit of sovereignty. Instead, a majority favors fundamental changes at home instead of stability alone.
The survey also found that young people have become less optimistic and more pessimistic about Russia’s future since the start of the expanded war in Ukraine. The share of pessimists has gone up 2.3 to 2.4 times while the share of optimists who believe things will get better has dropped by 2.5 times.
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