The Late Cold War and Cracks in the Iron Curtain for Georgian Youth in the 1980s: The Subcultural Nature of the “Jeans Generation”

Abstract

The paper analyzes the phenomenon of the “Jeans Generation” as a part of cultural memory in Georgian society, through the prism of subcultures and countercultures theories. It locates the analysis within the broader geopolitical settings of the late Cold War period in order to explain the subcultural nature of this ‘generation,’ juxtaposed to the Soviet regime. The group of Georgian youngsters from the late 1970s, their style and their beliefs about reality and ‘jeans’, as ascribed to them in the cultural memory, are analyzed vis-à-vis the scarcity of information affecting their perceptions of ‘America’ and ‘the West’. The theoretical part of the article goes through the main traditions within the research field of subcultures and countercultures, outlines analytical differences between these two concepts, and establishes a working conceptualization from a constructivist perspective. Subsequent analysis of the phenomenon enables to conclude that this group of youth, although lacking any apparent ideological motives, ought to be categorized as a youth subculture according to the persistency and commonality of their visions on certain matters. The article also shows how this group has inspired a more tenacious belief counterculture, which has come to be associated with the phenomenon of the “Jeans Generation” in post-Soviet Georgia after the Cold War. Considering the political circumstances in the late Cold War period is also important for the analysis of the case.