The goal of this chapter is to explore the evolution of official policy regarding national youth identity in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan. After all, official policy represents one important aspect of collective identity formation, and serves as the framework for local negotiations and interventions concerning such matters. I begin with a brief discussion of the key features of “indigenous nationalism,” including myths of origin and officially propounded constellations of social values and norms. Beyond describing such idealized constructs, however, my main concern is to examine how the formal process of state building is implicated in efforts to articulate and enact an official national identity. As we will see, youth policy is inextricably bound up with nation building, given the importance of youth identity for the prospects of coherent nationhood. This requires not only an apparatus for formulating policy, but also a vision of governance, including desirable modes of institutionalizing the processes of youth socialization and politicization. I therefore consider, first, the development of official policymaking in each country. Next, I review the nature of the official policy statements which have resulted, and compare them to the analytical categories of hybridization examined in the previous chapter. Finally, I assess the prevailing perspectives, in each state, on how to manage relations between central governing structures and youth organizations.

Nation building

Since the collapse of the USSR, the post-Soviet states have attempted to establish their legitimacy through the process of nation-building, involving the creation of new systems of social meaning and order.