Leonid Georgievich Volkov sat in his sparse Astrakhan office and smiled at his guest. Volkov was bemused. As Head of the city government's Department of Youth Affairs, he had never talked to an American about these issues before. How was he to explain the dilemma he faced, in a way that would make sense to this inquiring professor? “Everything has changed,” he began. The professor, who said he specialized in the former USSR, presumably already knew this, but still it seemed like an appropriate way to start. “Everything,” Volkov repeated, “has completely and utterly changed.”

“Now, not only are the economy and society not protected, but neither is the culture.” Instead, he explained, the floodgates had opened, and everything – especially the popular culture and the milieu of young people – was suddenly awash in a maelstrom of foreign ideas. “Yes, there has been a huge influence of the West,” Volkov commented sadly, shaking his head several times. “An unfortunate influence.”

And it was easy to understand how this had occurred. “It has taken place through artificial ties, especially films.” Hollywood films: violent, sensationalist, tawdry films catering to the lowest common denominator of vulgarity. “This influence affects attitudes and behavior,” Volkov went on, “and produces what we can call a ‘cult of individualism’ instead of any feeling of being part of the collective, of society.” It was all so much more complicated, and Volkov wanted the professor to understand this point: there were no simple solutions.