«They» and «We»: Russian Citizens' Perception of Their Own and Foreign Countries

Abstract

The paper is based on the results of political-psychological study of Russian citizens’ images of their own and foreign countries. Methodology included a survey with a number of open-ended questions, in-depth interviews, methods of cartography, semantic differential and a projective test. The study has shown that perceptions of a country are influenced mostly by such factors as the events context, cultural traditions, psychological conditions of Russian society and communication. Our results prove that Russians in general do not share territorial expansionism. Recognition of Russian culture and value system by others is more important for them. At the current moment the national «inferiority complex» that had been widely spread in the 1980-2000-s is not completely overcome, nevertheless the growth of national pride after reunification with Crimea determines social moods, though the trend is volatile. Our analysis of Russians’ perception of other countries enabled us to distinguish categorization mechanisms, used by our citizens. So the images of other countries include «neighbors» (post-Soviet countries) «strategic partners» (India and China), «forgotten allies» (Latin America and Africa), «significant «other» (individual European countries and less significant EU, «enemy» image (USA) and the «tourist Mecca» (Turkey and Thailand).