Times of “change” and “uncertainty": two articles published in Young magazine

In the latest issues of the Young magazine for 2025-2026, two articles by laboratory staff were published. Elena Omelchenko and Anastasia Andreeva co-authored a study of grassroots youth initiatives in an era of multiple changes and general uncertainty. At the same time, Nadezhda Nartova was looking for an answer to what it means to be a “younger generation" at a time like this.

photo by freepik; photo by press-service HSE

The early 2020s were marked as a time of an unstable future, a risky political climate, and uncertainty in life planning. The issue of self-determination and finding support in changing conditions is especially acute for young people who have yet to find stability in the context of modern living conditions.

In their article “Preconfiguration, Resilience and Transitions to Adulthood: Russian Youth in Times of Uncertainty” Center Director Elena Omelchenko and Center researcher Anastasia Andreeva, in collaboration with Pavel Sorokin, head of the Laboratory for Human Potential and Education Research at the HSE Institute of Education, consider the search for "sustainability strategies" by young people in St. Petersburg and meaningful participation in society in times of uncertainty.” Colleagues identify informal grassroots organizations as the main link in this process. When political activism is perceived as inaccessible, and key decisions are made exclusively by the older generation, such small associations allow them to embody their vision of a better future and thus realize themselves as adults and full-fledged members of society. 

The empirical basis of the study is data from in-depth interviews with young people in St. Petersburg, collected as part of strategic projects of the Higher School of Economics in 2022-2023.

The article by Nadezhda Nartova, a senior researcher at the Center, “Construction of a Generation by Russian Youth in the Context of Radical Social Transformations", approaches the consideration of youth in conditions of uncertainty in a slightly different way. How do young residents of St. Petersburg describe their generation in the early 2020s? What does “generation” even mean? in a time of radical change?

Young people are redefining themselves away from feeling to be a free generation open to choices and the future, through dramatic reflexive assessments of what is happening and generational perspectives, towards experiencing to be a generation of loss, focused on their private life in the present. 

(c) from the abstract

Based on the data from the projects of 2020-2023, among which are the projects of the Center “Growing up of Russian youth in the 21st century: a generational analysis" and “Generational identity, Life Choices, and the Resilience of Russian youth” — the researcher reveals changes in narratives of understanding current events and the dynamics of generational interpretations.

Both materials are written in English. We invite you to read: the articles are inked in the text.