Word: youthe
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...younger members to lead the country, young Soviets might have seen a sign that someone was trying to bridge the generation gap. Konstantin Chernenko, however, strikes the young not only as a typically uninspiring ideologue of the old school, but also as uncharacteristically voluble in decrying the youth culture brought in from the West. Only last June, Chernenko delivered a jeremiad to the Central Committee contending that "our enemy is trying to exploit for its ends the specific features of youth psychology...
More fundamental, Chernenko and his contemporaries are sensitive to the fact that today's youth belong to the first generation that has not been directly touched by the fervor of the Bolshevik Revolution or tempered by the monumental sacrifices of World War II. In his speech last year, Chernenko complained that "our young people have not seen firsthand the grim trials of class struggle and war, when the true face of imperialism with its hatred for the peoples of our country and for the socialist system was laid absolutely bare." Such finger wagging does not find a receptive audience...
...officials immune to the temptations; it is often their children who are first to sport the latest Western clothes, courtesy of a trip abroad or a state store reserved for the elite. "What cannot help alarming us," Chernenko said last year, "is the desire on the part of our youth to make themselves noticeable not by their knowledge or industry but by expensive things bought with their parents' money...
Such clucking is in character with the scrupulous attention the Soviet government pays to the young. Soviet parents are fond of saying, "Our children are our future." From age seven, when first grade begins, the children are enrolled in Leninist youth groups, which can lead eventually to party membership. After showing the proper spirit as "Little Octobrists" (named for the month in which the Russian Revolution took place), boys and girls graduate to the "Young Pioneers" at the age of nine. Their training in athletics, fitness and handicrafts can soon turn political. At the Black Sea camp of Artek last...
...most Pioneers join Komsomol, the League of Communist Youth. Forty-two million Soviets, 60% of those between the ages of 15 and 29, participate in its lectures, sporting events and work projects. Joining Komsomol does not ensure a better education or job, but failure to belong can hinder one's career...