Grad student analyzes political attitudes of adolescents in Russia and Ukraine (11/05/06)

Grad student analyzes political attitudes of adolescents in Russia and Ukraine

by Oksana Zakydalsky

TORONTO - Olena Nikolayenko's Ph.D. dissertation analyzes and compares the political attitudes of today's teenagers in Russia and Ukraine. A graduate student in comparative politics, Ms. Nikolayenko did her field research in Russia in April-May 2005 (in the cities of Moscow, Tula and Rostov-on-the Don) and in Ukraine in September-October 2005. In Ukraine, the cities chosen were Kyiv, Lviv and Donetsk.

Her fieldwork involved questionnaire surveys of about 100 students age 14 to 16, in each of three schools chosen in each city - therefore, about 900 questionnaires were collected for each country. The questionnaires concerned the acquisition of political attitudes as part of the socialization process.

Ms. Nikolayenko explained, "Both Russia under [Vladimir] Putin and Ukraine under [Leonid] Kuchma (and to some extent - Viktor Yushchenko) are similar, somewhere between democracy and dictatorship. Political scientists have coined the term 'hybrid' regime - a very strange creature which has some democratic institutions and some democratic procedures in place, but where the ruling elite manipulates procedures to its own advantage. It really is not interested in developing functioning democratic institutions or a vibrant civil society but wants to keep the pretence to stay in power."

"I was intrigued by the similarities between the two countries and at the same time I hoped that there might be some differences due to the escalation of authoritarian measures in Russia especially in the last few years," she noted.

"In Ukraine there was some sense that the Orange Revolution was a watershed event, and that a monumental change might come as a result of it. So I thought that there would be different shades of grey between Russia and Ukraine. I wanted to analyze the extent to which differences in the political climate would leave their imprint on the political attitudes of the young generation - those who will be voters in a few years and who will, to some extent, decide the future of their country."

In her survey, Ms. Nikolayenko elected to measure three objects of political support: support for the regime as a whole by asking about support for democracy; secondly, attachment to the political community - by asking students about national pride in their country and their opinion about the collapse of the Soviet Union; and, as the third element of political support - she wanted to measure their trust in the authorities.

The questionnaire was the same as in Russia, but in Ukraine a language question was added: Which language do you speak at home: Russian, Ukrainian, or both Russian and Ukrainian? In Lviv, most spoke Ukrainian at home, in Donetsk - most spoke Russian, while "both Russian and Ukrainian" was chosen by the majority in Kyiv, although Ms. Nikolayenko suspects that the students would mostly use Russian at home but, because everyone in Kyiv learns Ukrainian, they were able to use Ukrainian. On the other hand, in Donetsk, students are not learning Ukrainian.

"I did my survey in Ukraine in the fall of 2005, almost one year after the Orange Revolution. What I confirmed was a shocking, although not surprising, thing - the extent of the east-west difference as far as the adolescents' perception of the president, the interpretation of the Orange Revolution and the political reality around them," she explained.

"Students in Lviv and Donetsk continue to perceive the situation in different terms. After the Orange Revolution, the Lviv Ukrainians feel that it was part of their experience, whereas Donetsk Ukrainians are totally alienated from the process. In Donetsk, they feel like losers; in Lviv, there is a sense of pride in the victory of ordinary citizens. But this illustrates the failure of the incumbent government to reach out to different segments of the population and try and build some bridges across the country," Ms. Nikolayenko said.

On some questions, the differences between Donetsk and Lviv were larger than the difference between Donetsk and Moscow. Ms. Nikolayenko concluded that in Ukraine intra-country differences are larger than the differences between Ukraine as a whole and Russia.

In the support for democracy question (questions were mostly multiple choice with: strongly agree, agree, ambivalent, disagree and strongly disagree as choices for a given statement) - how suitable do you think democracy is for your country? - approximately 64 percent of the respondents in both Russia and Ukraine strongly agreed or agreed that democracy is the best form of government for their country.

However, percentages answering strongly agreed varied widely - in Lviv, 44 percent; Kyiv, 28 percent; and Donetsk, only 17 percent. This is not surprising because the students link what is going on in the country with democracy and in the east (at least in Donetsk) they don't like it.

To the question "How proud are you to be a citizen of your country?" there were similarities at the country level. In both Russia and Ukraine about 88 percent are proud to be citizens of their countries. In Lviv, 97 percent said they were strongly proud or proud, but pride was also high in Donetsk - 80 percent.

Trust in politicians and authorities was similar to that in Russia. Everywhere students complained about the corruption of officials references to "khabari" (bribes), "prodazhni" (those who sell out), etc. would come up many times. Mistrust for the militia and the courts was pervasive, with respondents feeling that they don't care about protecting law and order, but only about stuffing their pockets. There was some ambiguity with regard to the president - in the fall of 2005 Mr. Yushchenko still had some lingering popularity in the west, while in east he was evaluated negatively.

However, there was a striking difference between Lviv and Donetsk on the appraisal of the Soviet Union's demise. In Russia, 63 percent considered it a negative page in their history; in Donetsk, 69 percent saw it as a negative; while in Lviv, 92 percent saw the collapse of the USSR as a positive thing.

"The disturbing thing for me is the extent to which the mass media and the politicians perpetuate the stereotyping of each other. Politicians are trying to antagonize rather than improve relations between the regions and I think this does have some impact on the young generation. Although they are growing up in independent Ukraine, they continue to hold this deep-seated stereotyping," Ms. Nikolayenko said.

She pointed out that media in the east are controlled by local administrations - by the regional regimes and the regional governors. There is lack of face-to-face contact between east and west. "Those who live in the western Ukraine don't go to Donetsk, Luhansk or Kharkiv. The East is not as picturesque as the Carpathians. Adolescents from the east don't have contacts with the West and go to Russia where they are likely to have relatives," she observed.

Interest in youth in Russia has intensified after the Orange Revolution and, Ms. Nikolayenko pointed out, to some extent in Ukraine as well, but from the Viktor Yanukovych side not the Mr. Yushchenko side. In Russia, Ms. Nikolayenko said, authorities recently increased the spending for patriotic education and launched a series of initiatives, trying to co-opt youth into organizations and teach them how to be patriotic. "After Yushchenko came to power, he could have done something to co-opt the youth of the whole of Ukraine. I didn't get the sense that there was any attempt to develop a youth policy, for example, a new curriculum for the civic education course which is mandatory. There were some good initiatives, but not at the government level," Ms. Nikolayenko said.

She added that a Lviv organization, Nova Doba (with funding from the U.S.) developed a new textbook in civics - colorful, illustrated and much improved. But although it was approved by the ministry of Education and recommended for use, it was not financed by the foreign minister and de facto it meant nothing.

"The findings of my research show that there are regionally concentrated pockets for democracy and at the same time a negative appraisal of democracy. The real danger is that Ukraine will continue to oscillate between democracy and dictatorship, although some might argue that support in the whole country - 64 percent - is more than half. But it doesn't seem to be high enough to rock the boat and radically change the situation because there are a large number of adolescents, especially in Donetsk who feel alienated from democracy or don't really think it fits the country," Ms. Nikolayenko concluded.

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Financial support for Ms. Nikolayenko's research was provided by the Petro Jacyk Program for the study of Ukraine aided by the department of political science, Faculty of Arts and Science and the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto.

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A previous article on Olena Nikolayenko's research in Russia appeared in The Ukrainian Weekly on August 21, 2005.

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