A Vanguard of All Progressive Humanity: Youth Culture, Mobilization, and the New Soviet (Young) Person in the Post-Stalin USSR

Amongst the many changes which shook the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the death of Josef Stalin in 1953, one of the least researched is the changing role of youth. The post-Stalin era saw a reappraisal of the role of youth in the Soviet project, who were increasingly positioned as central to the creation of a communist society in the Soviet imaginary. In this Honors Project, I analyze Soviet youth culture in the post-Stalin period, examining the varying strategies employed by the Soviet state to stimulate youth participation and create the New Soviet (Young) person in an era where coercion and force had been discarded in favor of individual initiative and grassroots action.