Hilary Pilkington explores how Russian youth culture has changed since the introduction of perestroika and the collapse of communism. Her groundbreaking work applies the methods of cultural studies to the analysis of Russian youth. She deconstructs the social discourses within which Russian youth has been constructed and provides an alternative reading of youth cultural activity based on an ethnographic study of Moscow youth culture at the end of the 1980s. Pilkington also charts the development of western youth cultural studies in the twentieth century and suggests some ways forward in light of the Russian experience.

The first ethnographic study of Russian youth culture by a western academic, the book traces the cultural themes of youth culture in the Anglo-American tradition and within the former Soviet Union. It examines the impact of perestroika on the Russian media and its ramifications for the discussion of youth. The book includes studies of young people and youth cultural groups in Moscow drawn from extensive field work and interviews in the city.