YOUTH INFORMAL MOVEMENTS AND PUBLIC OPINION ON THE 1950–1980s (BASED ON MATERIALS OF THE BASHKIR ASSR)
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The article examines the attitude of society in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to youth informal movements in the 1950s – the first half of the 1980s. Public opinion in modern Russian historiography is interpreted as public sentiments expressed in value judgments. A brief analysis of the literature shows that the identified topic remains poorly studied. As sources, the work uses letters from citizens, memoirs, published in periodicals and unpublished, deposited in the archive, as well as documents of the Bashkir regional committee of the Komsomol. In general, a negative attitude towards informal youth movements prevailed in the periodical press. At the same time, the genre of reviewing received letters implied the publication of opposing opinions, as a result we often have very valuable material for studying public sentiment. The article examines the public opinion of citizens using the example of attitudes towards dudes in the 1950s and early 1960s and to the rock movement in the first half of the 1980s. According to recollections, adults treated dudes with indifference, while among chil dren and teenagers they aroused interest and surprise. The behavior of the dudes was discussed at Komsomol and student meetings, and voluntary people's squads worked with them. At the same time, a certain part of the youth had a positive attitude towards the dudes. In the 1980s Many were alarmed by the disintegration of the Komsomol and the emergence of new informal movements: hippies, punks, rock groups. The authorities, in particular, did not persecute rock musicians at first, but also did not approve of their work. However, in the mid-1980s an attempt was made to condemn the activities of the DDT group, and “devastating” articles appeared in periodicals under the names of figureheads. The population of Bashkiria including young people, in the first half of the 1980s. didn’t know work well Shevchuk. Many condemned him for being “anti-Soviet,” while at the same time there were relatively “loud” voices in support of the DDT group.
Author: Sh.N. Isyangulov
Language: English
Topic: Soviet and Russian History
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4408875277