PRESENT AND FUTURE OF RUSSIA IN VALUE ORIENTATIONS AND VIEWS OF RUSSIAN STUDENTS

Abstract

The article considers the questions studying the value orientations of students and related to the fundamental liberal values such as freedom, equality, individualism, enterprise, cosmopolitanism; degree of anxiety; views about their identity as well as preferences regarding ideological and political, social and economic system of Russia. The empirical basis of the article is a sociological study conducted by the Siberian Institute of Management (Branch of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) in March - June 2013. First-year to four-year full-time students were interviewed using a questionnaire. Cluster sampling was used in the survey. A total of 1200 persons were interviewed; the sample was 396. The purposes of the study was as follows: 1) to make a socio-demographic portrait of students of the Siberian Institute of Management; 2) to reveal the willingness of students representing young Russians to take responsibility for the fate of Russia; 3) to identify how students assess the results of market reforms; 4) to identify how students view their place in society; 5) to identify the problems of Russian society which Russian students are most concerned about. The main conclusion of the study is that the majority of Russian students feel anxiety, fear, shame, their own helplessness in front of what is happening in Russia. The minor part of respondents feels confidence, and this confidence comes from their families and friends or their own abilities. But few respondents count on the state; few students believe that everything goes right. The study also reveals that there is a mismatch between value orientations and actual behavior of students. All this suggests that the degree of moral readiness of students to take responsibility for the fate of Russia is low.