Social well-being of the soviet and post-Soviet students

The article is written on the results of two sociological surveys of students carried out in 1991 in the USSR and in 2013 in Russia, Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine. In both studies were identified equal pairs of students’ typological groups differing in their social orientations, social well-being, perception of their immediate social environment, family values and traditions, attitude to career and professional advancement. There were considered their characteristic features.The article gives a comparative description of various attitudes concerning the functions and role of parents in the life of youth in 1991 and 2013. Identification of the authority persons for different youth groups made it possible to see the changes in the most significant socio-psychological attitudes of students from different generations. Essential point is analysis of the changes in the occupational preferences and orientations relating to main characteristics of the future work. Analysis of the main causes of the youth’s feeling of shame, fear, protest and their notion of the life success characteristics brought to light the structure of the main social values of young people.