Perception of Holocaust Events by Modern Day Youth

Abstract

This article is devoted to current issues of the research of contemporary young people’s perception of the tragic events in the XX century. The attention is centered on shifts in population’s worldview and value orientations, which undertook significant changes as a result of new political and governmental structure of Russia, and most indicative of efficiency in social transformation in general. The article encompasses our society’s crisis of values, that are often controversial to each other in modern day Russia, as well as the need to create new type of culture, aimed at creating a humane culture. Author considers defining one’s value orientations (indicators), attitude towards culture and tradition, past and future, to be an utmost necessity of present day, as well as one of the main factors, defining society’s survival in general.
Studying people’s attitude towards major historical events, that became symbols of an epoch in history of a state, and humanity as whole, is suggested to be such an indicator. An object of special interest is the reaction of Russia’s citizens to the tragedy of Holocaust 70 years past Russia’s victory in the Great Patriotic War. A content analysis on this subject was carried out and described by the author. Respondent survey was aimed at revealing understanding of tragic events in nation’s history, level of knowledge on this topic, and attitude towards the genocide of Jewish people. Youth of different ethicalities and cultures participated in the research.