Что такое народ для молодого поколения россиян? (Этническая самоидентификация потомков от смешанных браков в контексте мировоззренческих парадигм века сего)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the perception and understanding of the categories of the national, nation, patriotism and related values by the young generation in the context of an increasingly spreading postmodern and transhumanist worldview. The topic is considered on the example of an interview conducted by the author among students of the Russian State Pedagogical University named after Herzen (St. Petersburg). The problem of ethnic self-identification of descendants from interethnic marriages is taken as a starting point. It is shown that it differs depending on whose point of view the phenomenon of “metisization” is considered. It was revealed to be the cultural, rather than genetic, basis of Russian self-identification among modern students (which seems to be traditional for the Russian ethnos), as well as the large role of the constructivist factor in ethnic self-identification. Constructivism is expressed in the fact that, in the opinion of a significant number of interviewed students, any descendant from interethnic families can choose any nationality, and not necessarily the nationality of one of the parents. In general, it is the students’ view that questions of national self-determination relate to the sphere of a person’s free choice. To confirm the latter, some aspects of the youth value system were analyzed, such as the patriotism characteristic for today’s youth, nationality (including inter-ethnic marriages), the future and behavior patterns that one should be guided by. A significant part of the students surveyed tend to give preference to globalist values (different from traditionally Western ones) and adhere to post-Christian patterns of behavior. The category of a nation is losing its meaning, and the transhumanistic worldview is apparently gaining influence among the surveyed students. Ontologism begins to disappear from the perception of young people; the world for them is increasingly turning into a “constructor”.