Modern Russia in collective consciousness of the country’s inhabitants

Abstract

The article explores collective consciousness as a theoretical construct, a type of social consciousness and as real attitude of the population towards Russia at the emotional and rational levels. It shows that modern collective consciousness in Russia is a product of mass culture, which actualized during modernization of the Russian society in the economic, political, cultural and everyday spheres of life. Today, it is influenced by mass and high-tech communications, while also reflecting the life experience of different generations. The research methodology is based on the interpretation of collective consciousness as the averaged consciousness of the whole mass of individuals in social groups; it erases individual differences, human characteristics, which in any single case may not be the same as collective consciousness, but impart collective consciousness a qualitative diversity. Empirically, the research is based on representative mass surveys – the Seventh Wave of the Russian Values and Interests Monitoring (Summer 2023), Russian Survey of Young Russian Adults (June 2020), European Social Study (ESS 2018–2019). The research attempts to determine whether the Russian mentality is more emotional than rational towards their “lesser motherland” or birthplace, their oblast/republic/krai, Russia as a country and the author suggests that these properties of mentality constitute characteristics of such a complex psychological phenomenon as Russian patriotism. The article reveals a growing rational perception of the problems of society with outspoken criticism amid high levels of emo tional attitude of the respondents to the country and “lesser motherland”. Such is the evaluation of Russia’s attractive and unattractive characteristics and the importance of civil rights and liberties, among which the rights that ensure people’s basic modern life-supporting needs, such as employment, education, property, security and protection by law, were ranked first with more than 90% of respondents stating their support. There is also a cohort of young people aged 18–24, for whom political rights and democratic freedoms, enshrined in the Russian Constitution, become more important compared to other cohorts.