How do Soviet young 
     
    
   
   
    
     peo- 
     
     ple feel about restruc- 
     
     turing? What  prob- 
     
    
   
   
    
     lems worry them today? 
     
    

    
     How do they assess their 
     
    

    
     role in society? Novosti 
     
    

    
     Press Agency (APN) of- 
     
    

    
     fers several interviews 
     
    

    
     with young Muscovites. 
     
     Arbat Painters 
     
    
   
   
    
     Arbat is® one. .of 
     
     Moscow’s: most. popular 
     
     streets. On this color- 
     
     ful mall artists draw por- 
     
     traits of passers-by for 
     
     a moderate price. We 
     
     interviewed artice Sergel 
     
     Rudin. He graduated 
     
     from an art college two 
     
    
   
   
    
     years ago and teaches 
     
     drawing at a children’s 
     
     studio. In his spare 
     
     time he earns a_ little 
     
     extra by drawing por- 
     
     traits in Arbat Street. 
     
    
   
   
    
     “T have a licence to en- 
     
     gage in individual en- 
     
     terprise and J] pay in- 
     
     come tax. My profits are 
     
     not steady. Sometimes I 
     
     draw 10 portraits a day 
     
     and at other times only 
     
     one. The average price 
     
     is 10 roubles.” 
     
     Yakimanka Society 
     
    
   
   
    
     In a garden near the 
     
     Oktyabrskaya Metro sta- 
     
    
   
   
    
     tions we arranged. to 
     
     meet with Dmitry Za- 
     
     kharenko. senior 
     
    
   
   
    
     engineer with the Aca- 
     
     demic. Institute of the 
     
     Lithosphere and = Chair- 
     
     man of the Yakimanka 
     
     Voluntary Society pro- 
     
     moting the development 
     
     of youth housing com- 
     
     plexes. 
     
    

    
     “Muscovites, young 
     
     people in particular. suf- 
     
     fer from a shortage of 
     
     housing.” Dmitry said. 
     
     “We offer a_ solution 
     
     to the problem.” In 
     
     their free time soci- 
     
     ety members reconstruct 
     
     run-down old buildings 
     
     in the city centre to 
     
     live in. The society 
     
     which was approved by 
     
     the Moscow City Coun- 
     
     cil Executive (municipal- 
     
     ity) six months ago has 
     
     500 members. They 
     
    
   
   
    
     were given three build- 
     
    
   
   
    
        
     
    
   
   
    
     On the other side 
     
    
   
   
    
     ings which need a com- 
     
     plete overhaul. 
     
    

    
     We offered to restore 
     
     the whole city centre 
     
     rather than residential 
     
     buildings alone. In the 
     
     past, housing young peo- 
     
     ple in the centre was out 
     
     of the question. Fortu- 
     
     nately, the attitude to 
     
     the matter is changing 
     
     dramatically. 
     
    
   
   
    
     “According to Ruslan, 
     
     people today are too pre- 
     
     occupied with fashionable 
     
     clothes, food and apart- 
     
     ments, - whereas intellec- 
     
     tual interests should come 
     
     before material ones.” 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     Metallists against rou- 
     
     tine 
     
    

    
     A year-old club of in- 
     
     formal youth groups at 
     
     the Gorky Cultural Cen- 
     
     tre unites lovers of hard 
     
     rock. punk rock. pop 
     
     music and heavy meta. 
     
     The Club is headed by 
     
     a council that includes 
     
     group leaders. 
     
    

    
     We arrived just in 
     
    
   
   
    
     time to see a group 
     
     of “metallists” in their 
     
     leather-and-metal jack- 
     
    
   
   
    
     metal bracelets 
     
     member- 
     
    
   
   
    
     ets and 
     
     applying = for 
     
     ship. 
     
    

    
     “There is a protest 
     
     in the way we dress.” 
     
     Ruslan Tyurin admitted. 
     
     “We protest against rou- 
     
     tine and narrow- 
     
     mindedness. How do 
     
     most people live? From 
     
     home to work and back 
     
    
   
   
    
     every day. Whereas 
     
     we entertain ourselves. 
     
     Sometimes we get our | 
     
     thrills riding motorcy- 
     
    
   
   
    
     cles at night. I want to 
     
     have more such experi- 
     
    
   
   
    
     SOVIET YOUNG PEOPLE TALK 
     
    
   
   
    
     ences to have something 
     
     to remember in my. old 
     
     age.” 
     
    

    
     Ruslan has a job as 
     
    
   
   
    
     an assistant salesman. 
     
     He is the eldest in a 
     
     group of 12 metallists, 
     
    
   
   
    
     including Yuri Mureyev 
     
     a commercial artist, and 
     
    
   
   
    
     Andrei Leonov, Mikhail 
     
    
   
   
    
     Savin and Valery 
     
     Parushkin who are stu- 
     
     dents. The boys said 
     
    
   
   
    
     they did not take drugs 
     
     or drink, except for beer. 
     
    

    
     According to Ruslan. 
     
     people today are too pre- 
     
     occupied with fashion- 
     
     able clothes. food and 
     
     apartments. whereas in- 
     
     tellectual interests 
     
     should come before ma- 
     
     terial ones. 
     
    

    
     “When our move- 
     
     ment was born. nobody 
     
     took any notice.” Rus- 
     
     lan recalled. “Then they 
     
     banned it without trying 
     
     to understand what. we 
     
     were all about. Under 
     
    
   
   
    
     restructuring we've re- 
     
    
   
   
    
     ceived full freedom and 
     
    
   
   
    
     we like it. That’s the 
     
     way it should be. 
     
    

    
     “Our group is moral. 
     
     It’s: members who dis- 
     
     tort its ideas who are to 
     
     blame for our bad name. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     They should be punished 
     
    
   
   
    
     and removed from the 
     
     leading posts. : 
     
     Punk accuses older 
     
     generation 
     
     Our con- 
     
    
   
   
    
     versation with metallists 
     
     attracted the attention 
     
     of another youth group. 
     
     Member Aleksei Blinov. 
     
     an engineer. is closer to 
     
     punks in his views. He 
     
     claims to be dissatisfied 
     
     with the world.  Alek- 
     
     sei is an avid reader. 
     
     His favorite writers are 
     
     Jorge Borges. Julio Car- 
     
     tazar and Gabriel Gar- 
     
     cia Marquez. “The An- 
     
     tumn of the Patriarch” 
     
     and ‘One Hundred Years 
     
     Of Solitude’ are real eye- 
     
     openers.” he said. 
     
    

    
     “T don’t like the way 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     _ness is being married to 
     
    
   
   
    
     eS 
     
    
   
   
    
     the 
     
     older veneration lives. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Aleksei said. “They 
     
     accuse unofficial organi- 
     
     zations of consumerism. 
     
     but who makes them 
     
     what they are? Who 
     
     taught them that happi 
     
    
   
   
    
     a brainless doll, making 
     
     good money and having 
     
     acar and carpets? There 
     
     must be a different goal 
     
     in life.” 
     
     Blinov 
     
    

    
     says. “The West has no 
     
     fresh ideas to offer us. It 
     
     has already built a cou- 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     = March 17th 1988 
     
    
   
   
    
        
     
       
     
    
   
   
    
     en