The article considers the issue of the youth participation in volunteering as a form of social activity and at the same time the direction of the youth policy. The analysis of the empirical data follows a short review of the history of volunteering in the pre-revolutionary and Soviet periods. The authors explain this movements contradictory nature by the social-political trends in the development of civil society and by the organizational influence of the authorities. The contemporary Russian volunteering is presented on the basis of the online survey data on two cohorts of the adult urban youth - 18-24 and 25-34 years old (N=705 and N=714). The samples represent the social-demographic and geographical features of two groups. The mathematical methods of analysis allowed to identify the scale of participation and the types of volunteer activities for both cohorts, social attitudes and real involvement in the volunteer movement, and an expected gap between them, which can be explained by a complex motivation for volunteering. We identified the following motivation models: the promotion model implies mercantile and career motives, the capital model - the growth of human and social capital, and the value model - beliefs and expectations of public recognition and respect. The second model is especially relevant for the younger cohort. The survey revealed the opinions of the youth as a social group about the factors that hinder participation in volunteering. Young people were critical of their group, and named social indifference as the first problem, then comes the lack of time, insufficient encouragement and public recognition. The research proved that the potential of volunteering is much higher than the youths participation in it. The development of this activity together with overcoming its bureaucratization can become an incentive for reducing the youths social apathy.