Kritiški piliečiai“? Posovietinės jaunimo kartos požiūris į demokratiją, politiką ir sovietinę praeitį

The article based on the results of a qualitative study of the post-Soviet young generation’s perceptions of life in the Soviet Union analyzes the youth’s attitudes to democracy, themselves as Lithuanian citizens, and politics. Supplementing the results of the research conducted in Lithuania and abroad on young people’s political behavior, the article answers the question whether the younger people of post-Soviet generation who have none or very few memories of life in the Soviet period are more spiritual and look at democracy more favorably than the older generation. The article demonstrates that young people are critical of the current democratic and political situation in the country and believe that a large part of the current problems in Lithuania results from the undemocratic past. They have high hopes associated with their own post-Soviet generation in assuming that with the change of generations the quality of democracy will improve, different values will prevail in politics and the political culture will change. In the article, these hopes are juxtaposed with the actual data that highlights major contradictions between the reality and its perceptions.