Proverb as an Indicator of the Normative Behavior of the Armed Forces of Russia Officers

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The purpose of the study is to understand the semantic constructions by which the Russian Armed Forces officers symbolize their attitude to social realm. For this purpose, they were asked to write their favorite proverb, to which they try to “correspond” in their behavior. The authors proceeded from the assumption that interiorized folklore type statements are life guidelines (social values) for representatives of this professional group and informal regulators of their life. The study made it possible to determine the “boundaries” of the proverbial worldview of Russian officers. Further, within the established boundaries, four groups of statements were obtained. The first is proverbs and sayings about labor, work; the second – about the reaction to external stimuli; the third is about human qualities, relationships during service, camaraderie, and interpersonal communication. The fourth is about corporatism and professional solidarity. The article describes the most significant fragments of professional military personnel’s dispositional worldview. Moreover, on the one hand, a desire to work, a willingness to endure the hardships of military service were revealed, on the other hand – a certain fatalism, a conviction that external conditions and circumstances may be insurmountable, but if you acted as the duty requires, then you are allowed not to worry about the consequences. Typical personality traits and the social identity of this professional group, recreated in the study, are determined by the peculiarities of military service, while being within the boundaries of universal human terminal values and have a constructive, solidarizing orientation.