145 RUSSIA’S ‘GENERATION Z’: ATTITUDES AND VALUES 2019/2020 Lev Gudkov, Natalia Zorkaya, Ekaterina Kochergina, Karina Pipiya, Alexandra Ryseva 146 RUSSIA’S ‘GENERATION Z’: ATTITUDES AND VALUES THE FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is the oldest political foundation in Germany, with a rich tradition in social democracy dating back to 1925. The work of our political foundation revolves around the core ideas and values of social democracy – freedom, justice and solidarity. This is what binds us to the principles of social democracy and trade unions. With our international network of offices in more than 100 countries, we support a policy for peaceful dialogue and cooperation, social development and democracy. We promote the trade union movement and a strong civil society. YOUTH STUDIES SOUTHEAST AND EASTERN EUROPE 2018/2019 The “FES Youth Studies” is an international youth research project carried out in many countries in East, Southeast Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The main objective of the surveys has been to identify, describe and analyse attitudes of young people and patterns of behaviour in contemporary society. The data for this study was collected in May and June 2019 from 1,600 respondents aged 14–29. A broad range of issues were addressed, including young peoples’ experiences and aspirations in different realms of life, such as education, employment, political participation, family relationships, leisure and use of information and communications technology, but also their values, attitudes and beliefs. Findings are presented in both Russian and English language. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5 INTRODUCTION 9 METHODOLOGY 11 Description of the quantitative poll 11 Description of the qualitative study 15 OUTLOOK: OPTIMISTIC VS. PESSIMISTIC 17 Fears and concerns 22 Interpersonal trust 24 Values and rights 26 YOUTH AND POLITICS 31 Interest in politics 31 Politics and closest friends and family 36 Political views 38 Taking part in politics and NGO activities 42 Volunteering 46 Sources of information 48 YOUTH AND THE STATE 51 Generalized and institutional trust 51 Democratic aspirations 54 Goals of governmental policy 68 RUSSIA AND EUROPE 65 Attitude towards democracy: Russia vs. EU 65 Russia – Europe: confrontation 67 Collapse of the USSR 72 YOUTH AND NATIONAL IDENTITY 77 Identities: hierarchy and pride 77 EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT 83 Education and work 83 Work and professional growth 86 WELL-BEING AND IMMIGRATION 91 Satisfaction with life 91 Emigration attitudes 93 Emigration attitudes of youth 94 Real emigration or just itchy feet? 98 The dual image of the west 98 The most highly motivated group of potential emigrants 100 MARRIAGE, CHILDREN, AND FAMILY PLANS 103 Marital status 103 Plans for the future 104 Relations with parents and the housing problem 107 Parenthood 109 Leisure activities and lifestyle 113 VALUES 117 Tolerance of violating accepted norms 118 Religion and religiosity 121 Religious practices 124 Tolerance and discrimination 127 Personal experience with discrimination 129 Health, sexual behaviour, deviant behaviour 132 Sexual relations 136 Appendix 1: footnotes 138 Appendix 2: list of tables and figures 139 5 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY What are the concerns of the youth of Russia? What is the educational institutions is a problem and about half attitude of the country’s latest generation, which has little or of the respondents feel that the voice of the young no memory of the Soviet Union? How does a young person, generation is not heard in politics. influenced mainly by the turbulent 1990s and the upswing ― The concerns of young people range across a wide in the 2000s, think about Russia and the world – especially in spectrum. When given a list of potential issues, the light of increasing de-democratisation and already more than item that troubled them the least was refugees, which 5 years of confrontation between Russia and “the West”? strongly concerned only 31% of respondents. More than The Levada Centre, commissioned by the Friedrich-Ebert- half and up to 60% of youth were afraid of war, pollution Stiftung, has attempted to answer these questions through a and climate change, terrorist attacks, increased poverty representative survey, conducted in mid-2019, of 1500 young in society and unemployment. The structure of fear is Russians between the ages of 14 and 29, supplemented with generally very similar to that of other age groups, except focus groups. for “pollution and climate change”, which is a far bigger The young people were interviewed about various areas concern for younger respondents than for older ones. of their lives: education, employment, political participation Gender differences are also very evident: while just a and attitudes, leisure time and the use of new technologies, quarter of men fear being a victim of physical violence, as well as their experiences of education and plans for their half of the women do so. own families. The results show a highly differentiated, ― Trust towards the state and its institutions overall is low. sometimes even contradictory portrait of Russian youth: The only state institutions that receive a comparatively high level of trust are the president and the armed forces. How do young people think about their own lives and the The reasons for this are not quite clear but can be related current state of affairs in politics? to the perceived role of the president and the army as guarantors of national security, seen apart from domestic ― On an individual level, young people remain optimistic policies. Political parties and the state Duma, on the other and satisfied with their immediate life realities and hand, enjoy only very low levels of trust. This low trust experiences: 87% are very satisfied with their lives and in state institutions is most likely causally related to low 81% look positively into their personal future; only 2% political participation among youth (the highest share of see things getting worse in the next 10 years. any form of political engagement is a little above 20% ― However, a different picture emerges when they are for signing online petitions or participating in volunteer confronted with the realities of the country: although or civil society activities) and their very low willingness 43% still see the country’s future in the next 10 years to participate in politics (only 7% consider becoming as better than today, 20% believe that the country involved themselves). On the other hand, volunteer will be worse off. This difference in the assessment of movements are generally trusted. their own vs. the country’s future is quite noticeable. ― The challenge is to get young people interested in politics Moreover, many are convinced that corruption in again. Just under a fifth show any interest in politics, 6 RUSSIA’S ‘GENERATION Z’: ATTITUDES AND VALUES whereas more than half (57%) do not. And even fewer segments of the population: homosexual couples (more respondents consider their own knowledge of politics to than 60% do not want them as neighbours), Roma, former be good or very good (11%). prisoners and drug users. ― The digital shift is very evident among Russian youth. The ― Family and close friends are basically the only trusted demand for digital services to obtain political information group in the lives of the majority of young people – they is much higher than for analogue services. 84% get their trust them the most and almost all of the respondents information from the Internet, 50% from television. get along well with their parents. Loyalty is shown mainly The latter is seen more as a supplement to information to family and friends. But still, 38% would raise their obtained from the Internet. In general, 95% have access to children differently or completely differently than they the Internet, but most use it to communicate with friends were raised themselves. or family (78%) or for school or work (58%). ― The acceptance of bribery is quite low compared to other ― Young Russians already live in a different, post-Soviet forms of misconduct and ranks even lower, the younger reality. Only the oldest age group has vivid memories of the respondents. The use of personal relationships for the USSR, and only in this group does a majority have a help with work or to solve everyday problems is regarded negative view of the collapse of the USSR. On average, more tolerantly. 50% do not have a clear position on the collapse of the ― Young people are less religious than the population as a USSR. whole. While 19% of the general population belong to no religious group, that level is 27% for young people. What values and family plans do young people have? How Moreover, 17% of young people consider God not tolerant are they? important at all in their lives, compared to 7% in the general population. But at the same time, of those who ― 69% agree with the statement “I am proud to be a citizen consider God very important in their lives, there is a higher of Russia”. Their identity is focused on their immediate percentage of young people (24% of young people vs. environment and the nation state. Hence, they mainly 19% overall). The church and religious organisations prove see themselves as citizens of their hometown (87%), to be a polarising issue: 26% do not trust them at all as Russians (86%) or as a citizen of their region (86%). (which is the same level of trust toward the OSCE, IMF Nonetheless, ethnicity-based connotations of what makes or the State Duma and political parties), while 17% trust a Russian citizen (“only those who have Russian blood in them fully (the only institutions enjoying higher levels of their veins”) are less pronounced among youth and are full trust are the president (20%), the armed forces (21%) even less frequent, the younger the respondent: among and volunteer organisations (19%).