Current Projects

Looking East or West?
Young Russians in Estonia and Russia

Recently, the Russian government has engaged in an elaborate soft power project at home and abroad.  Part of this project involves the restoration of Russia as a great power, including stimulating and responding to nostalgia for the Soviet era.  In 2009 and 2010, through interviews, focus groups and large, random sample surveys, we will assess the efficacy and impact of this Russian soft power project on a crucial target audience: young, ethnic Russians living outside Russia.  As a case study, we will examine the views of ethnic Russians (ages 16 to 29) in Estonia in comparison to those of the corresponding generation of ethnic Estonians and of ethnic Russians in the Russian Federation.  This project seeks to assess:
 

• To what extent do these young ethnic Russians more closely resemble the corresponding generation of ethnic Estonians or ethnic Russians in the Russian Federation? 
• In what specific ways are they similar and different? 
• Is Soviet nostalgia, a key element in Russia’s soft power arsenal, a force more powerful for Russian ethnic minorities in Estonia than Western soft power? 
• Do perceptions, experiences, and socioeconomic circumstances correlate with growing anti-Western sentiments and Soviet nostalgia? 

This research is generously supported by a grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation.