Are Russian youths very different from the youth around the world? I asked this question to my study-buddy Nina Avakyan. Below is her answer, edited for language and clarity. We both are studying at Higher School of Economics Moscow. Nina is of Armenian origin but was born and raised in Russia.
The 15-year-old native of Ekaterinburg became a sensation of the Games in Sochi, 2014 – making the greatest contribution to the victory of the national team in figure skating. Julia won a short and free programme and the league title. Speed skaters have touched not only sports fans, but also the director Steven Spielberg. In an arbitrary programme, Julia appeared with the music from Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List”, and the director wrote a letter with thanks to Lipnitskaya for the well-presented image of the girl in a red coat, one of the heroines of the painting.
Russia is the largest country in the world, with a great number of different nationalities, ethnicities and cultures living together. But how it is like to live in such a country when you are young? Many things have changed over the past decades. The same can be said about the life of modern teenagers in Russia. Any parent looking at their child will probably say: “Uh… at your age, I was doing this or that and not acting like you are.” These kinds of comparisons usually are not in favor of the children of the current generation. Teachers add fuel to the fire and say that this generation, apart from using the internet and social networks, is useless.
Is it possible that modern teenagers have changed greatly since the 1990s? If yes, then what’s the difference and what do they do?
First of all, commitment to certain forms of ‘filling free time’ and the choice of the model of social participation depends not only on the fashion or standards but also on the cultural potential. In particular, many tastes have relative stability and are transmitted from generation to generation
Of course, the bracket of youth, like any other social stratum, is not homogeneous and fully standardised. Many activities continue to change, but something remains as valuable and important. Such forms of ‘filling free time’ as reading, hobbies, extracurricular classes maintain their relevance today. About 60 % of teenagers watch TV during their free time, 40% read books and 33% of youths go to bars and clubs. Secondly, modern children generally do not come home at all.
They are more loaded with their studies and with ‘additional education’. Moreover, previously, if clubs and after-school activities were based on the desires of the child, now the parents are choosing for them – being guided by what they think will help them choose a popular or prestigious profession. The most popular clubs for children are music schools; usually, girls go there and learn the piano.
Another popular thing for girls is gymnastics. For boys, it’s ‘hockey fight-clubs’ and chess. Furthermore, youths like to spend time with friends a lot. How they spend their time together sometimes depend on the season. It might sound typical, but during winter, people prefer to spend time in cafés. Or, to speak more specifically, teenagers nowadays really like the hookah places, and they are distributed almost like the McDonald’s outlets.
Occasionally, you may meet students who do their homework there. Another way of spending time with friends is ‘anticafe’. I am not sure what they are called in another country, but overall, it’s a place where you pay for them and drink tea, coffee, eat cookies how much you want.
Honestly, these are amazing places for having fun with a friend – and they even give a 50% discount for teenagers and students. Surprisingly, a large number of students visit theatres and theatrical colleges where they can watch the performances, again and again, with a great discount or even for free. Every weekend, most cinema halls or student communities organise a movie night where teens come with friends and watch films, meet new people and eat popcorn.
In general, in Moscow there is always something to do. Another pretty distinctive feature of the Russian youth is vaping and music. Well, vape culture became popular in 2015-16, and immediately, many of them started to vape. After the classes, especially in spring and summer, they gather in the yard of the house or school and listen to music loudly and vape. On the other hand, many students also go to hookah places.
If we consider the picture as a whole, then the infrastructure in almost every region is developing quite well. All areas have their own fitness clubs, libraries, cinemas, malls and parks. So there is no problem to find something that you want. And most of the youths think about beauty and their body shape, but not about their health (but again, this kind of situation is common in most countries).
Now, let’s consider reading. Russian culture is fairly well-known globally for its poets and writers. but is it valued and loved in own country? This question is quite hard to discuss because most of the parents and teacher will say that teenagers don’t read at all – but according to my recent observations, it is not true.
For the last couple of years, reading books and going to libraries has become more and more popular. The students like the atmosphere and the silence in those places. Sometimes, while sitting in café, you can hear how people discuss books and characters.
From school, children learn literature, and are taught to love it. We can’t say how exactly effective it is, because it is a matter of personal preference – but subjectively speaking, after the days of the USSR when the main thing was working, we have started a new chapter where it’s really important to know your own culture and to be well-educated.
In the last ten years, even cinematography has entailed reading. A huge number of films are filmed based on books or biographical pictures about the life of the writers. A Russian teenager is encouraged to read and love literature. And they do like reading (but not all teens of course), which is observable from the fact that they buy and read a lot of books.
Therefore, overall, youths in Russia don’t differ too much from the youths in a different part of the world. They are still kids with their problems, concerns and insecurities.
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