ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЕ ЛИДЕРЫ СССР И РОССИИ В СОЗНАНИИ ТАМБОВСКОЙ СТУДЕНЧЕСКОЙ МОЛОДЕЖИ

ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЕ ЛИДЕРЫ СССР И РОССИИ В СОЗНАНИИ ТАМБОВСКОЙ СТУДЕНЧЕСКОЙ МОЛОДЕЖИ В статье предпринята попытка исследовать отношение студенческой молодежи к различным историческим эпохам, начиная с 1917 года и заканчивая современностью, через призму оценки олицетворяющих эти эпохи политических лидеров. В первую очередь, автор опирается на данные собственного социологического изыскания, объектом которого стали студенты тамбовских вузов и ссузов. Результаты исследования, посвященного оценке политических лидеров, позволили лучше понять состояние современной молодежи, её идеологические убеждения и ценностные установки, определить факторы, на них влияющие. Адрес статьи: www.gramota.net/materials/3/2012/11-1/38.html


УДК 316 Социологические науки
The author undertakes the attempt to research student youth's attitude to different historical epochs from 1917 till modernity through the lenses of the estimation of the political leaders embodying these epochs, primarily basing on the data of his own sociological survey, which object was the students of Tambov higher and secondary specialized educational institutions.The results of the research, devoted to political leaders estimation, allowed better understanding modern youth's state, young people's ideological views and value guidelines, and determining the factors influencing them.Key words and phrases: political leader; Tambov student youth; sociology; authorial sociological research; pro-Soviet moods; "charismatic type"; political processes.

POLITICAL LEADERS OF THE USSR AND RUSSIA IN TAMBOV STUDENT YOUTH'S CONSCIOUSNESS ©
Leadership nature always attracted different researchers: thinkers, sociologists, historians, and political scientists.The whole historical epochs are connected with tsars, presidents, and military leaders, transformations are ascribed to them, they are accused of crises and shocks, and they symbolize the lifestyle of states, societies and civilizations.A leader often embodies the whole historical period facilitating the formation of the attitude to him through the lenses of his own personality, the basis of which are usually image characteristics, deeds and qualities that really took place or were ascribed to him by grateful contemporaries and descendants.
The German sociologist Max Weber states that a political leader is not simply a person directing political processes and performing the functions of managing a society, political organization or movement.It is a political leader that is able to change the course of events and political processes direction.A leader's role may be played by an individual or the whole organization, particularly a party or a state [1, с. 37].
It is evident that not every state head becomes a political leader.Political leaders activate political processes in the society.They promote programmes determining the way of its historical development.Real politics was never possible without the participation of political leaders in the role of main actors in political processes, of their main stimulators [2].
The perception of the activity of political leaders of the past and present helps to form public consciousness and mainly determines modern reality estimation arranging people's behaviour structure, the peculiarities of their political, public and civic consciousness.
Sometimes ideas about leaders and their activity estimation are based on solely emotional level.The important task of a researcher is to determine attitude to them, and, correspondingly, to the whole epochs, the whole ideological formations, as the received data undoubtedly help to better understand the modern society state, its ideological views and value guidelines.
This article, devoted to studying political leaders estimation by student youth, is primarily based on the results of the authorial sociological research, which object was equally Tambov girls and Tambov youths, who were 18 and older by the moment of the survey -the students of two higher and seven secondary specialized educational institutions.The sociological survey was conducted in November-December 2011 with the methods of group and individual surveys.300 respondents took part in the survey.
Young people were supposed to express their attitude to the leaders of the Soviet and Russian state.The questionnaire comprised the surnames of all the leaders of our country from V. I. Lenin to D. А. Medvedev (except Yu.V. Andropov and К. U. Chernenko, whose short governing can't be considered as the whole historical epoch).
According to the survey results 46,8% of young people positively estimate V. I. Lenin's activity.28,5% adhere to the opposite point of view, 24,6% had difficulties with its estimation.
Polar opinions were formed in relation to I. V. Stalin's personality.Thus, 41,5% of the students of higher and secondary specialized educational institutions think about him "perhaps, well" and "very well".And 36,1%, on the contrary, estimate him negatively.22,5% of all the respondents had difficulties with the answer.
The creator of the famous "thaw" N. S. Khrushchev is little known to Tambov youth -36,8% couldn't characterize him, probably, because they know very little about this political personality.One third of the respondents think about him positively, as many -negatively.
According to the authorial research 35,7% of the respondents think positively about L. I. Brezhnev, 31,4% adhere to the opposite point of view, 32,9% had difficulties with the answer.As for M. S. Gorbachev, his rating is the lowest among all the Soviet leaders.Only 25,7% of young people think about him well or very well.41% gave the main ideologist of restructuring a poor mark.33,2% couldn't express their attitude to him.
The first President of sovereign Russia is a little bit more popular than the first and the only Soviet President.B. N. El'tsin's rating is 36,8%.40% think about him negatively, 23,2% couldn't estimate him.The rating of the incumbent President is the highest -61,4%, 23,2% think about him badly or very badly, and 15,4% had difficulties with the answer.The incumbent Prime Minister's rating is lower -51,8%.33,5% of the students think about him "perhaps, badly" and "very badly".14,6% had difficulties with the answer.Some regularities are rather interesting, first of all those concerning place of living, sex, place of studying and satisfaction with the economic conditions of the respondents.Thus, girls better think about the leaders of modern Russia, in contrast to the youths, who give better marks to Soviet leaders and Secretaries General.For example, 49,2% of the youths think positively about Stalin, and only 33,6% of the girls adhere to the same estimation.
Stalin and Lenin's activity is estimated considerably better than that of the politicians, who can be named democrats, starting from Gorbachev and finishing with Medvedev, by the students, who are not satisfied with their economic conditions.
This regularity completely corresponds to Pitirim Sorokin's theory of "starvation influence on people's behavior", according to which there is a connection between material welfare level and some ideologies success level.The more hungry society is, the stronger communist views are [4, с. 313].
Students coming from the countryside think a little better about all the personalities on the list without exception.For example, 47,3% of the villagers and 37,3% of the town dwellers think positively about Stalin that can be primarily explained by economic conditions level and by the fact that it is lower in the countryside.
Attention must be paid to the fact that a considerable part of the respondents was not ready to give a concrete answer to the formulated question and preferred the alternative -"it is difficult to answer".Such tendency was revealed by the author in another research, devoted to the formation of senior pupils' historical consciousness in the system of civic education and upbringing.Its authors explain this phenomenon, on the one hand, by the lack of full information about a political personality, and on the other hand, by the inconsistent presentation of information that is difficult not to agree with [3, с. 459].
It is interesting that young people think positively about the so called "charismatic type of leaders", for instance, Stalin and Lenin, the type of leaders, which can't be definitely estimated.During the period of deep structural transformations a charismatic leader sometimes by the only fact of his existence is able to unite a nation, to inspire confidence in transformations success.At the same time the paternalistic consciousness of the masses is often formed, and they shift the care for their existence, all the appearing problems solution onto the leaders.Whereas the attitude to less impressive politicians having a bent for collective leadership, during whose governing there were no considerable transformations, and there was relative stability, is different.First of all, it concerns Brezhnev.
Positive attitude to Soviet charismatic leaders can be explained by pro-Soviet moods strengthening in the modern society, which become typical of student youth as well.For example, the respondents were asked the following question: "What is your attitude to The Soviet Union breakup?".Thus, 45,7% of the students answered that they are "very sorry" and "perhaps, sorry", 32,5%, on the contrary, consider it as a positive phenomenon.21,8% chose the answer "no matter".Among those, who expressed regret for the USSR breakup, girls prevail over youths, town dwellers -over villagers.As it turned out, the main reason of such positive attitude to the USSR of practically a half of the respondents is their confidence that material welfare in the USSR was better than now.Thus, 39,3% of all the respondents are sure of it.They are equally youths and girls, the students of higher and secondary specialized educational institutions, among them there are more town dwellers (44%) than villagers (30,2%).
22,5% of the respondents think that material welfare nowadays is better than in the USSR.7,9% answered that nothing has changed, that material welfare in the USSR and in modern Russia is the same, 30,4% had difficulties with the answer.
It will be logical to assume that many respondents give such marks basing on the events accounts of their parents and other relatives.Thus, 57,2% of the respondents think that their parents lived in the USSR much better or just a little better than they live now.14,6% are certain that they lived just like they have been living for the last years.28,2% answered that their parents live much better or just a little better now than in the USSR.
So, the split is obvious among the student youth of the Russian post-Soviet society -the presence of two vividly expressed political value guidelines.Thus, one part obviously needs someone, who'll put spirit into them, this conclusion can be made on the basis of positive attitude to such charismatic dictators as Lenin and Stalin.The other part supports softer governing system.And the formation of such guidelines is primarily caused by different economic conditions of the respondents.Thus, the students, who are not satisfied with their material welfare, considerably better estimate the activity of Soviet leaders and have negative attitude to the so called democrats.
The differences are approximately the same among youths and girls, villagers and town dwellers.And pro-Soviet moods, conditioned primarily by the confidence that material welfare was considerably better during the Soviet times, as the results of the sociological survey showed, were largely formed under the influence of the representatives of older generations -the respondents' parents and other relatives.