What kind of impact have the last decade's radical changes in types of economic systems, property ownership, and opportunities for employment had on the rural youth of Russia? This paper examines this topic by presenting a survey of upper-grade students in rural schools in a region of Saratov Oblast in 1994, 1997, and 2004, using the same methodological procedures. Each year, fifty eleventh-grade students were questioned prior to graduation. According to this author, survey results reflect the values of the life prospects of rural youth in all their contradictions, which depend on the state of the economic realities of the countryside and the cities, as well as the status of the family, and the lack of experience in realizing people's plans. (Contains 1 note and 2 tables.)