How Street Youth Groups Emerge (The Case of a Small Town)

Abstract

The article discusses the factors that have influenced the activities of street youth groups in a small town of Russia during the 1950s‑2000s. These are: 1) the growth of youth population in the town; 2) the appearance of visitors (especially young women) settling in compact clusters; 3) the activity of asocial leaders; and 4) the emergence of opportunities for getting illegal income. The significant role that these factors have played is substantiated by the comparative data obtained from studies of other towns. Contrary to the expectations, respondents rather infrequently mention among the factors of importance the acute social issues of the last decades such as the impoverishment of the population, lack of job or growth opportunities, alcoholism, or drug addiction; which may be explained by the compensatory mechanism conducive to the drain of active youth from small towns to the more affluent regions of the country.