Youth Policy Practice in Post-Soviet Russia and Belarus: Past and Present

Abstract

Kristina Silvan – PhD Candidate in Political History, University of Helsinki, Finland. Address: Snellmaninkatu 14 A, 00014, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. E-mail: kristiina.silvan@helsinki.fi

Citation: Silvan K. (2019) Youth Policy Practice in Post-Soviet Russia and Belarus: Past and Present. Mir Rossii, vol. 28, no 1, pp. 161–171. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2019-28-1-161-171

This article examines the changes and continuities in youth policy practice in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus from the mid-1980s until the present day. The article finds that while there were notable similarities between Belarus and Russia in the early 1990s, the practice of youth policy has since developed distinctively in the two countries, with Belarus currently demonstrating a mass organization model and Russia a complex model of youth policy practice. The focus on a patriotic upbringing and an approach that tends to ignore young people’s agency are recognized as features that stem from the two countries’ shared Soviet past and their present authoritarian tendencies and thus distinguish the Belarusian and Russian approaches to youth policy practice in comparison with other countries, although the aim of youth policy, to bring up “ideal citizens”, remains universal.