Look into the Future: Life Values and Orientations of Modern Youth in Yakutia

Zakharova Akulina E. ORCID: 0000-0003-4973-8375 PhD in Sociology Senior Researcher, Institute for Humanitarian Research and North Indigenous People Problems of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 677000, Russia, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, Petrovsky str., 1 linamestnikova@gmail.com Other publications by this author

During the student period, personal self-awareness is formed, it is at this stage that a person forms his main life goals and meanings, a system of values, life strategies, a transition from social and moral self-determination to self-realization in society takes place. If we consider values as those objects of the surrounding reality, in relation to which an individual takes an assessment position in accordance with his needs, then the basis of the matrix of values, its core is a ranked set of values ^[1]. Zh. T. Toshchenko, based on data from sociological research, noted that such orientations as family are the leading values of youth, health, friends, material well-being, career, ideas about freedom ^{[2, p.177]}. According to F. I. Sherega's typology, they can be considered in three dimensions: socio-biological (family, health, friends), material and economic (career, money, work) and institutional life values (power, faith, attitude to the Motherland) ^{[3, p. 69]}.

In the hierarchy of values, traditional values are becoming important, serving as "moral guidelines that form the worldview of Russian citizens, passed down from generation to generation, underlying the unified cultural space of the country, strengthening civil unity, which have found their unique, original manifestation in the spiritual, historical and cultural development of the multinational people of Russia"^[4]. In the works of researchers, traditional values are considered, which, "on the one hand, are based on cultural and historical heritage and life experience, and on the other hand, they are necessarily reproduced in the worldview of new generations of people" ^{[5, p. 94; 6]}.

In April-May 2023, the Center for Political Science of the Institute of Socio-Political Studies (ISPI) of the Federal Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted a survey in 30 subjects of the Russian Federation aimed at studying the life world, social and political orientations of students "Students of Russia: Civic Culture and Life Strategies". The total sample size was 6,757 respondents, in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) 468 students of the Northeastern Federal University named after M.K. Ammosov, the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts, Churapchinsky State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports, studying full-time (75.9%), part-time (8.8%) and correspondence (15.4%) forms of education.

According to the results of a sociological study, in the individual matrix of values, the most important students of Yakutia include material prosperity (62.4%) and interesting work (60.3%), family stability, emotional connection with family members (58.5%), personal peace, lack of worries and obligations (57.5%), have their own social circle, friends with whom you can spend your free time (55.3%), as well as the availability of high-quality education, independence, independence, individualism (52.8%), as well as life in accordance with your conscience, your principles (51.1%) (Table 1).

Table 1.

Distribution of answers to the question:

"Which of the above is important to you personally?", in %

Undoubtedly, the concept of success is important in building a life strategy and an individual matrix of values for a young person. The strategy of life success includes intellectual-creative, motivational, value-oriented, emotional-sensual, moral-volitional and behavioral-adaptive aspects ^{[7, p. 197]}. In the answers of students to the question "What, in your opinion, is the basis of success today?" priorities were set as follows: the most significant are "own intelligence and abilities" (48.7%), "business acumen, pragmatism, entrepreneurship" (44.9%) and "professionalism, business qualities, competence" (44.2%). The presence of connections and acquaintances (45.9%) in achieving life success is also considered important. Considering that the significance of almost all the proposed indicators has reached the maximum values on the scale, students consider success to be a multidimensional, systemic concept, for which it is necessary to activate all possible qualities and resources (Table 2).

Table 2.

Distribution of answers to the question:

"What, in your opinion, is the basis of success today?", in %

Studentship is a time of youth, apprenticeship, comprehension of life; a time of hopes, expectations, opportunities ‒ in the opinion of many, it is the best and happiest time in life. What do the students of Yakutia themselves put into the concept of happiness? Judging by the answers of the respondents, a happy person is primarily made by the family (66.7%). It is gratifying to note that family values resonate with the younger generation, a young family and its needs become a key object of social and demographic policy of the state, while researchers believe that the phenomenon of modern student families is poorly studied and requires further research, it is especially important to keep records of their numbers, analyze problems and needs both at the regional and federal levels levels ^[8].

In second place are the "happy" factors: independence, independence and freedom (66.5%). This triad in those other formulations runs like a "red thread" through various aspects of the life and activities of young Yakut people. Thus, freedom was to be one of the main concepts defining Russian politics; independence and independence were among the "ten" most important values of youth; one's own intelligence and abilities are the most significant in achieving success in life.

Achieving a dream is an aspiration to the future, motivation for creative activity and a path to happiness for 64.1% of students. Also, respondents need pleasures in life (63.9%) and loyal friends (60.7%) to feel happy.

Table 3.

Distribution of answers to the question:

"What will make you a happy person?", in %

In sociological science, various discursive practices are currently being observed, studies of historical memory, territorial and civic identities and problems of patriotic education of youth in the context of attitudes towards small and large homeland, which allow us to see the complexity and ambiguity of experience, to expand the perspective from the total to the private, returning the human dimension to history in specific spatio-temporal and national-V. T. Mikhailov, J. Runge ^[9] say that spatial levels of identity determine the degree of emotional attachment to specific local-territorial communities, at the individual level - to a small homeland (village, district, city); at the subnational level – identification with a region, region; at the national level level – to the country. However, despite its conceptual significance, this approach captures only a static picture that does not reflect the dynamics of the transformation of territorial identity under the influence of modern geopolitical and interregional processes.

From the point of view of K. S. Mokin, N. A. Baryshnaya, territorial identity is a complex of social ties and relationships articulated in their context, including the semantic (cognitive) content of everyday social, economic, cultural and political practices involving: 1) uniqueness in comparison with similar practices in other territories; 2) locality of attachment to the community living in a particular territory; 3) depth and separability of common values, ideals and interests by residents of the local community; 4) clarity (transparency) of these values and interests both for the members of the territorial community themselves and for "external"actors, in relation to which the dichotomy of the "friend–foe" relationship is formed ^[10].

A small homeland, its components construct the foundations of a human life strategy. The appeal to the phenomenon of a small Homeland allows for a systematic approach to understanding the formation of personal qualities and value-symbolic orientations of a person who make up his life strategies (A. O. Boronoev ^{[11; 12]}, K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya ^{[13; 14]}, D. V. Mironov ^[15]).

In the conducted study, more than half of the respondents (51.5%) to the question "Where is your homeland?" chose the option "I consider Russia my homeland, regardless of where it is better to live - here or in another country" (Table 4).

Table 4.

Distribution of answers to the question "Where is your homeland?", in %

According to the data of a sociological study carried out under the project "Asian Russia: demography, ethnic composition of the population and interethnic relations in the new conditions of turning to the East" (Dr. T. B. Smirnov) as part of the Program of scientific research related to the study of the ethnocultural diversity of Russian society and aimed at strengthening the All-Russian identity 2023-2025 (ruk Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V. A. Tishkov), to a similar question in a slightly different formulation, "What do you consider your homeland?" the majority of Yakut respondents (58.5%) chose the option "your region (region, republic), the next most common answer option is "your city/his village" (26%). In comparison with the other 12 Russian regions of Asian Russia (19% and 18.3%, respectively), residents of Yakutia demonstrate a significantly higher level of regional and territorial identity ^{[16, p. 45]}. Of course, the formation of a single territorial affiliation and co-involvement of individuals and groups, awareness and division of the value system of a certain local community by people, is significantly influenced by the specifics of the region - not only the geographical remoteness of Yakutia from the central regions of the country, transport inaccessibility, extreme climatic conditions, but also ethnocultural and natural identity, socio-economic and socio-cultural processes that shape the characteristics of the region.

The territorial identity of young Yakut people who took part in the study "Students of Russia: Civic Culture and life strategies", their spatial levels of identity and the degree of emotional attachment to local and global territorial communities can be revealed through the interpretation of the answers to the question "To what extent do you feel yourself", presented in the form of an interval scale, where 1 point is very I feel it weakly, 5 – I feel it very strongly.

They feel most strongly like a resident of the locality where they were born and grew up (42.5%) and a representative of their nationality (41.7%), to a slightly lesser extent they feel like a Russian (35.7%), Asian (34.6%) and a resident of the city where I live now (30.8%). Europeans (70.7%) and Eurasians (60.9%) feel the least like themselves. There is an assumption that the question of regional identity, formulated as "To what extent do you feel like a member of a sub-regional community" (25.2% - very strongly; 23.1% - very weakly) was not quite correctly understood by the respondents (Table 5).

Table 5.

Distribution of answers to the question "To what extent do you feel yourself?", in %

The data of the conducted research correlate with the results of questionnaire surveys conducted within the framework of the project "Interethnic situation in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)", implemented by the Center for the Study of Interethnic Relations of the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Center for Strategic Studies under the Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in 2021, where regional identity is a priority among respondents (80%): "they feel connected with people living in the republic, they are united with their fellow countrymen by similar values, the history of the territory, views on the future development of their region, etc." ^{[17, p. 191]}; ethnic (68%) and generational (67%) identities are actualized in the background; in the third placein terms of local territorial and settlement identity (64%), as well as national identity (52%).

Strengthening regional identity, not in opposition, but in strengthening the general civil one, is a consolidating principle conducive to building an effective system of regional and interregional interactions, since the formation of a single civil nation according to the formula "unity in diversity" not only ensures civil harmony in the state, "but is also the only feasible formula for building a multi-ethnic country" ^{[18, P.395]}.

In conclusion, it can be stated that the student youth builds an image of the future of Yakutia and Russia in optimistic tones, relying on traditional values and family, while being open to global society, mainly relying on their own experience and competencies.