Aspects and dynamics of the Russian megalopolis youth's political views in 2015-2018

The paper presents the results of four sociological surveys conducted in Yekaterinburg in 2015-2018. The first two polls focused on political views of the megalopolis youth in modern Russia, and the next two focused on the young Yekaterinburg citizens’ participation in the election on September 18, 2016 and March 18, 2018. The samples were arranged by the snowball method; young people aged 18-29 years of different sex, social status, education and income levels were interviewed. The results were processed by means of the SPSS program. The author identifies and describes the aspects of the Yekaterinburg youth political views, namely: 1) the fragmentation of the young people’s interest in political life; 2) the contradictory nature of youth’s political judgments and political actions; 3) the increased but at the same time heterogeneous protest moods; 4) the reduced political and electoral activism; 5) the critical attitudes to the political and public institutions of the modern Russia; 6) the growth of critical attitudes to the Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk region authorities; 7) the increased activity of the young generation in the discussion of political events. The author concludes that the political views of the modern Russian megalopolis youth are heterogeneous; however, the megalopolis as an environment determines their certain common features.