Scouting, Volume 50, Number 7, September 1962 Page: 26
32 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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RUSSIAN YOUTH
LOOK 10 THE WEST
(Continued from page 7)
Nothing infuriates party propagan-
dists more than the blue-jean fad.
They declare that this is a completely
alien style. They note that blue-denim
material is not even produced in the
Soviet Union.
The tourists, as well as students
from Poland and Western Europe,
are the principal transmission belt for
Western tastes and fads. Another
source is the anti-Western movie.
Youngsters turn these pictures upside
down, glorifying what they are sup-
posed to despise.
Some of the typical reactions of
Soviet young people to the films are as
follows:
"Have you seen 'America Through
the Eyes of the French?' What a
wonderful picture! Is life in America
really so thrilling? Here things are so
boring! Do you really have automobile
graveyards in America? Are there
really teen-age gangs? Do they fight
each other? Do you really smash cars
up by deliberately running them into
each other? (The reference is to a
county fair "wreck" sequence.)
Like their counterparts in the United
States, the Soviet youngsters talk in a
special jargon, comprehensible only
to themselves. Many of the terms are
the equivalent of Western expressions.
A favorite phrase is "Don't be
afraid, lads, keep your pistol in your
belt." This apparently is derived from
old Western films or smuggled-in
comic books. The comic book has a
vogue even among boys who cannot
read foreign languages.
What do these young people want?
One youngster, in a play by Ivan
Kupriyanov, put it like this:
"It's too boring, being one of the
orthodox. You can't do this. You must
not do that. I'm sick of it. Sick of it all.
It doesn't take brains to blat out
commonplace truths. If I had the
power, I would forbid bombast for
good."
This kind of reaction baffles the
older generation. As a party chief
accurately declares in one play:
"I cannot understand our young
people. They have some kind of kink.
They are growing up without ideals.
They have lost their ideals."
26 But the reply is: "What kind of
ideals were they—that they were so
easy to lose?"
Many of the young people have
plenty of money. Many are the sons
and daughters of important Soviet
officials, directors of enterprises, party
men.
They spent their evenings at the
National Hotel restaurant until a "hot"
band there was moved by the authori-
ties to the less prominent Budapest
restaurant.
Now they go to the Metropole Hotel,
where there is a new "iron" band.
"Iron" is a superlative adjective in
their vocabulary.
In provincial towns and Moscow's
sprawling industrial suburbs, the pic-
ture of the "young generation" is
hardly attractive. The boys organize in
tough gangs that often terrorize people
on the streets. The newspapers con-
stantly report that in Pskov, Saratov,
or Zagorsk bands of hooligans have
taken control of the streets, and ordi-
nary citizens hardly dare venture out
at night. The gangs amuse themselves
by attacking police posts and beating
up militia (police) officers.
What do these youngsters think of
communism?
One of them snatches a pack of
cigarettes from a stand and slips away.
His friend exclaims: "But you didn't
pay!"
"I'm just anticipating the arrival of
communism when everything will be
free," the thief responds.
Another youth says: "We have heard
how great life is and of all the sacri-
fices that have been made to build our
society. Now it is time for us to enjoy
it."
"Do I enjoy my work?" a youngster
says. "Certainly I do. Every first and
fifteenth of the month when I get my
pay envelope."
Truth—by this the Russian young
person means sincerity and genuine-
ness—is the great goal.
Those who are more serious; those
who have not given themselves up com-
pletely to aimless chasing of Western
fads and fancies seek out Western
individuals and question them end-
lessly.
They have little hope of finding their
ideals in the gray and hypocritical
world in which they live. They hope
that "the truth" may exist in the West.
Those who try to respond to their
eager, feverish questions about life
beyond the Soviet frontier can only
hope that the West will not prove to
be equally disappointing.
"Oh, if you only knew how I want
to travel!" said a bright-eyed, well-
groomed young girl of 21 in Samar-
kand. She had gone there after gradu-
ation from a university in a Volga
town "because at least Central Asia
is different."
"I have been here a year," she said.
"It is just as boring as the Volga. I
must go abroad. I must. Even if only
to Rumania. If you only knew how
boring life is in Russia!"
1
'Don't worry, Ma! It's only ketchup!'
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 50, Number 7, September 1962, periodical, September 1962; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth331734/m1/28/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.