ABSTRACT
Towards the beginning of 1986 the first signs of a new youth agenda had appeared. Between 1987 and 1989, however, not only did there emerge a specific perestroika debate on youth, but that debate itself became a central perestroika theme. As part of this process, the issue of the social and cultural activity of youth became politicized (as opposed to ideologized) in a way that had not been the case since the mid-1920s. The vehicle for this politicization was the polemic surrounding the so-called neformaly; 1 the discussion of the ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ aspects of the emergence of informal and independent organizations. This chapter analyses how the theme of the neformaly was constructed in academic, political and media discourses, what this tells us about changing approaches to youth and youth culture, and how this is related to economic, political and social changes taking place during the three key years of perestroika, 1987–9.
