ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the main ideas that will be addressed in the book and provides an overview of the contexts in which the research to be reported later was conducted. There is an historical dimension to this overview given that 1989 marked the beginning of the fall of the Soviet Union. The process of regaining independence from Soviet hegemony took place at different times and in different ways for the countries that fall within the ambit of the book. These differences are highlighted throughout the chapter. The book does not assume that these post-Soviet nations followed a single trajectory in the 1990s, as they sought to develop new responses to their changing political conditions. Yet across all the nations, young people started to experience new political structures, new economic opportunities and new ways of thinking about the world that was being created around them. The question to be addressed in this book is how these young people responded to changing conditions and how well prepared they were for new citizenship responsibilities.
