The Model of the Future and the Social Ideal in the Consciousness of Modern Russian Youth

In the totalitarian and authoritarian ideologies the present sacrifices to the future prosperity. The Soviet society was directed to the future. The building of communism was that the most important task, which combined several generations. The whole system of state propaganda was aimed to inspire people what kind of future they had to dream about, what they needed to restrict their needs consciously for.
             During the transformations, occurred in Russia at the end of the XX century and at the beginning of the XXI century, the transition from a single targeted ideal of the future, introduced into the consciousness of people, to pluralism of ideological values in modern Russian society has happened.

This is in youth when a person actively forms his social expectations, develops the system of value orientations and ideals. In spite of the economic, political and social problems the youth are always oriented towards the future. Therefore, it is important to study the changes occurred in the minds of young people in recent decades, including models of the future, social ideal.

According to data of all-Russian polls over a half of young Russians (57%) do not have idols or heroes whose example they are ready to follow. Most young people (54%), but not all of them, are sure that the main moral norms are influenced by time and are always important.

The dynamics of the youth value orientations has become a subject of the study conducted by us for the last 18 years among students. Within our study framework it was important to analyze whose future worries the youth first of all: their own one or their country’s. What period of time do the youth plan their future for? What is the future of Russia and who or what does it depend on in the youth imagination?