Spiritual and moral values as the basis for self-realization of the potential of the individual in Russia

Abstract

Life in a new modern transforming society requires greater personal freedom to manifest not only the individuality of a person, but also all of his inner, often base qualities. This conflicts with the previously habitual community mechanisms of joint decision-making, collective benefit, traditions, stereotypes and rules, with the upbringing adopted in Russian general education institutions. The desire to preserve old values while striving to live according to the norms of the new world, which promote only physiological needs, does not find a consensus, creating deep intrapersonal conflicts, which result in an irreparable deep deformation of the personality’s character. In this regard, it became expedient to study these changes in young people in order to identify the direct evolution of fundamental spiritual and moral values. The studies were conducted in three stages, in 2007, 2009 and 2020 with subjects aged 15–29 years. The dynamics of this process is shown on the example of the Penza region. The result was an analysis of the change in spiritual priorities in the dynamics of personality development, tendencies to increase the value of certain values that affect the general spiritual and moral state of young people in the first quarter of the 21st century.