Young people's view of the Soviet era: between the prospects of new identities and the challenges of memory wars

Abstract

The article is devoted to the results of a sociological survey of participants in the international scientific conference of students and graduate students «Young people's view of the Soviet era: between the prospects of new identities and the challenges of memory wars », organized by the Faculty of History, Political Science and Law of the Moscow Region State University on October 27, 2021. The main methodological optics were the principles sociological survey. The survey was aimed at studying the attitude of modern Russian youth towards the Soviet era. A feature of the sociological study was the high educational level of young people, a deeper knowledge and involvement of respondents in the history of Russia. It is indicated that wars of memory in the post-Soviet space arise precisely because of different interpretations of the history of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War. The theoretical contribution of the work lies in the fact that the analysis of scientific literature has shown that the wars of memory, their chronology are closely dependent on the characteristics of the processes and stages of the formation of new post-Soviet identities. The conclusions note that in relation to the younger generations to the Soviet era, in the assessment of its figures and events, there are significant changes in comparison with previous periods. The Soviet era as a whole receives more positive assessments, there is a rethinking of the assessment of its leaders. The results of the study allow us to form an idea of today's assessments of the young generations of the Soviet past, trends in the information field that shape the interpretation of history and influence the current processes of identification.