The Impact of Socialization on the Political Engagement of Russian Youth

Protest activity of Russian youth has received great attention in the Russian academic field over the past few years. However, the research focus exclusively on the protesting youth does not provide us with thorough understanding of how politically active Russian youth are included in politics. Thus, it is important to consider young people not as a homogeneous group, but rather as a group that engages in various forms of political activity. The political activity of young citizens, in its turn, is determined by the process of political socialization. Based on the qualitative data from the conducted interviews, this paper examines how agents of political socialization influence the political activity of Russian youth. The results of our analysis revealed a significant role of political communication that arises during interaction with such agents of socialization as family and educational institutions in shaping the political activity of young people in Russia. The hypothesis about the positive influence of views homogeneity among family members on political activity was confirmed. Furthermore, participation of Russian youth in online activism is limited, which contradicts the results of recent empirical studies of youth political activity. Keywords: political activity, political socialization, agents of socialization, family, school, university, media, youth.