Russian Youth See No Profit in Communism

NOVOSIBIRSK, Russia â€”  Lyudmila Sebeleva and Tanya Kryuchenkova were drawn to the campus rally of Communist presidential candidate Gennady A. Zyuganov out of curiosity, but, like most of the scores of students joining them, the two friends had already decided to vote for Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin.

“We’re choosing the way we are going to live in the future,� said Sebeleva, 20, who like her friend is studying to be a structural engineer at Construction Academy in this Siberian city of 1.3 million. “There’s no way we would choose to go back to communism.�

Kryuchenkova, 19, added: “We’ve lived all of our conscious lives under the new system. We’re used to it.�

They are not unique. As Russia prepares to vote in its first presidential election since the breakup of the Soviet Union, both leading candidates--Yeltsin and Zyuganov--are courting the youth vote.

While Yeltsin appears more successful with the 18- to 25-year-olds than almost any other age group, Zyuganov’s overtures to them have fallen flat.

That was the case even in Novosibirsk, an economically depressed city where the Communists are particularly popular. When Zyuganov requested that the students ask him questions, they stood around in their leather jackets looking at him with blank stares.

After an awkward silence, he gave up and fielded questions from the gray-haired people in the crowd--even though the event was targeting the youth vote.

When asked, most of the students at the Zyuganov rally said they plan to vote for Yeltsin.

A few said they prefer one of the longshot candidates in the race, such as liberal economist Grigory A. Yavlinsky or ultranationalist Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky. Even though it was a Zyuganov rally, almost none of the young people said they support him.

Their reasons for rejecting the Communists ranged from a refusal to spend their lives standing in line for the one type of sausage available--like their mothers and grandmothers did--to a conviction that life is simply more fun now than it was when the Communist Party controlled every aspect of life in the former Soviet Union.

They share none of their elders’ nostalgia for the past or fear of capitalism that makes Zyuganov a viable competitor in the race for the presidency.

Sergei Sonochkin, 38, a local Communist activist who helped set up Zyuganov’s visit to Novosibirsk, admitted that the youth event was the one flop in an otherwise successful day. It reflected, he said, the Communist Party’s utter inability to attract the young generation.

“Their youthful energy enables them to profit from the new system,� Sonochkin said. “The older people cannot do this. So the youth win out. They don’t understand that the whole society is suffering as a result of their gain.�

Opinion polls bear out Sonochkin’s analysis. The youngest voters--much more so than their elders--embrace their country’s free-market reforms and the president who made them possible.

Yeltsin was supported by 42% of the respondents aged 18 to 25 in a recent poll by the Russian Center for Public Opinion and Market Research, a highly respected Russian polling firm. Zhirinovsky came in second with 9%. Zyuganov was supported by 6%--his worst showing among all age groups.

If no candidate wins 50% of today’s vote, and a runoff election pitted Yeltsin against Zyuganov, about 60% of the voters 25 and younger would vote for Yeltsin and 15% for Zyuganov, according to the poll.

The Yeltsin campaign, however, is worried that the impact of the youth vote could be diluted by a low turnout, so it has given the youth a hard-sell campaign the likes of which Russia has never seen.

Television is saturated with pro-Yeltsin ads warning them: “Vote or You’ll Lose.�

The 65-year-old Yeltsin himself has wooed the youth by pledging to end the draft and boogieing at a pop concert on the campaign trail in Ufa.

Russia’s top pop stars are campaigning for him, touring the country and giving free concerts.

Last weekend, right outside the Kremlin, tens of thousands of young people danced, sang, swayed and swigged vodka while their favorite bands played.

As the crowd waited expectantly for the popular group Kabare Duet Akademiya to begin its set, lead singer Alexander Tsekalo said, “We want everyone here to know that all the artists who perform tonight will vote for Yeltsin.�

Before launching into a song, he urged listeners to go to the polls and also cast ballots for the president.

Such endorsements resonate with the young generation.

Many of the young people listening to the concert said the “Vote or You’ll Lose� ad campaign has helped them see their own stake in the election.

If the Communists win, they fear, it could cost them their freedom to travel, to seek lucrative careers and to spend their money as they choose on the plethora of goods--foreign and domestic--now available in Russia.

Lena Alexeyeva, a 21-year-old chemistry student who studied abroad for a year and dreams of working for a foreign company, has daily political debates with her mother--who is retired, receives a meager pension and prefers Zyuganov.

“It would be terrible if the older people decided our future,� Alexeyevasaid as the music throbbed and the sun set behind the Kremlin towers. “I love the changes that are going on in the country. Life has become a lot more fun.�