Sociological Institutionalism Research Articles

Мedia preferences of the population of the Republic of Belarus in the sociological dimension (based on sociological research materials)

Мedia preferences of the population of the Republic of Belarus in the sociological dimension (based on sociological research materials)

Baḥtsul Masāil at a Traditional Islamic Educational Institution in Aceh: Teungku Dayah's Contribution to the Development of Islamic Law

The global world has implications for the emergence of various contemporary problems and demands legal certainty for every Islamic legal issue. This research aims to examine Baḥtsul Masāil in Dayah as a traditional Islamic educational institution in Aceh, especially its contribution in responding to developments in contemporary Islamic law. This research uses a qualitative-normative method with a sociological approach to Islamic law. Data was obtained through interviews, observation and document study. The informants interviewed were Tengku Dayah in Aceh, observing the activities of Baḥtsul Masāil and the documents studied were journal articles, textbooks and books. The research results show that teungku dayah is able to answer contemporary Islamic law problems through Baḥtsul Masāil. This activity took the form of a focus group discussion involving professional staff from Islamic boarding schools and discussed various current issues from a legal perspective. In Baḥtsul Masāil uses the method of ilhaq and contextualization of the turats text. Ilhaq is achieved by equating law with problems that have not been answered by Islamic texts with problems that have been answered by Islamic texts, while contextualization of Islamic texts is achieved by interpreting Islamic texts in a contemporary context. The results of Baḥtsul Masāil are then disseminated to the community through community learning processes, recitations, or religious lectures. Thus, in terms of the sociology of Islamic law, Teungku Dayah and Dayah educational institutions as actors are able to contribute to contemporary Islamic problems and the problem of the vacuum of Islamic law in society can be overcome.

Transforming Global Aid: An Analysis of the Evolution of International Development Assistance Policies and the Optimisation of Strategies During the 2000-2030’s

The sphere of international development assistance (IDA) is undergoing significant changes, primarily due to the economic rise of the countries of the Global South. At the same time, the importance of IDA as an area of interstate cooperation remains high, as evidenced by the priority attention to this area on the part of the UN and other influential international organisations. In this regard, from the standpoint of historical and sociological institutionalism, we have analysed the cause-and-effect relations that condition the current problems of IDA and proposed ways of solving these problems. Using the aforementioned theoretical approaches, the gap between the conceptual and practical development of international aid was identified, including how donors impose the development track and the concept of IDA itself on recipients. It is shown how, including as a result of “institutional layering” in the relevant organisations, the interaction between “new” and “traditional donors” is significantly impeded, and how the latter use historically developed structures to pursue their state interests against the background of objectively falling volumes of aid from their side to the countries in need. It was noted that in order to resolve the identified contradictions, it is necessary to start a discussion in the academic and professional community, based on inclusiveness and respect for cultural diversity, on the individual development trajectory for each society, the tasks of IDA and the forms of appropriate interaction in each case. It is important to encourage openness and independent criticism in order to objectively highlight the benefits to both recipients and donors of engaging in IDA activities. Efforts should continue to develop an integrated approach for more accurate and consistent monitoring that communicates results to the general public.

Geosocietal Support for Democracy: Survey Evidence from Ukraine

We examine why public support for democracy in Ukraine increased after Russia’s 2014 intervention and surged after Russia’s 2022 invasion—despite concerns that the wartime quest for security would diminish support for political freedoms. We statistically analyze original data generated as part of annual opinion surveys by the Institute of Sociology at Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences in 2017 (N = 2,199), 2018 (N = 1,800), and a 2021–22 panel survey with the same respondents (N = 475) interviewed before and after Russia’s invasion. Our findings indicate that wartime support for democracy is in significant respects geosocietal—arising from the mobilization of civic national identity conditioned by salient geopolitical threats. Civic pride, attribution of threat to an external authoritarian aggressor, and war onset were the strongest and most robust predictors of multiple democracy support indicators, overriding personal loss and stress. The findings call for more attention to the interaction of geopolitical and social contexts shaping political attitudes, with implications for democratic futures globally.

Sociology and Sociological Education in Italy Between Universities and Upper Secondary Schools

AbstractSociology was first introduced to Italy in 1961, when Franco Ferrarotti became the first tenure track professor in 1960 at Rome’s Sapienza University. The Institute of Sociology was founded in the 1963/1964 academic year, and in 1962, the first Faculty of Sociology was established at the University of Trento. The process of formation is rather late when considering both the development of sociology as an autonomous science and the historical evolution of the various European universities. Sociology is now widely recognised as a discipline in Italy and is taught at universities as part of both bachelor’s and master's degree programmes, as well as in high schools (known as secondary schools of first level) for students aged 14 to 18/19. This work presents the development of sociology in Italy and its formation. Beginning with the development of sociology, it provides a historical analysis of its scientific recognition, role within the social system, and evolution as a science and association. It then explores the disciplin’s place in the Italian university educational system, analyzing its changes over the years. Finally, it discusses the formation of sociology within schools.

The role of the new institutional sociology in implementing the environmental agenda

The new institutional Sociology declares that organizations, whether public or private, are influenced by norms, customs and beliefs institutionalized in their structure. Therefore, it is possible to infer that these factors can also influence organizations' actions regarding the environment and sustainability. Based on this understanding, we sought to investigate the role of the new institutional Sociology in the implementation of the environmental agenda. Given the purpose of this work, it is possible to classify it as bibliographic and exploratory in nature. Scientific articles, books, reports and other secondary data of national and international origin were used as theoretical support for the research. In the context of the environmental agenda, institutions can materialize in the form of laws, regulations, public policies, positioning of the professional class, behavior of successful organizations, consumer preferences and many other factors. It was noticed that institutions pressure organizations to develop sustainable practices and these, in turn, enable environmental conservation without necessarily impeding economic development. It was also possible to identify that the pressures felt by organizations to adopt similar environmental practices are explained through the phenomenon understood as institutional isomorphism. This occurs in three ways: coercive; mimetic and normative. Furthermore, this study allowed us to understand the levels of implementation of an environmental agenda. However, it was observed that agendas can be implemented at global, national and local levels. And, the adoption of environmentally sustainable practices in organizations is motivated, above all, by the need to legitimize organizations.

Cross-border regionalism in the EU and ASEAN: another dimension of the “varieties of regionalism”

ABSTRACT This article examines the governance norms of micro-regional cross-border cooperation (CBC) in Europe and Southeast Asia. We ask why world-wide cross-border micro-regional institutions, though at first sight pursuing similar economic and socio-political objectives, markedly differ in their institutional design. Guided by arguments derived from sociological institutionalism, we argue that cross-border institutions adopt the governance norms of the regional organization to which they are linked. Accordingly, while in Europe CBC is characterized by normative ideas, supranational tendencies tamed by subsidiarity, bottom-up processes, liberal participatory norms and legal formality, Southeast Asian cross-border institutions are more material, intergovernmental, hierarchical, state-controlled and informal. Cross-border regions established in countries acceding to a regional organization localize the latter’s governance norms if these deviate markedly from entrenched extant normative arrangements. The diversity of CBC in the two world regions studied suggests that the ‘varieties of regionalism’ concept also applies to micro-regionalism.

Forms of the higher education participation in ensuring labor productivity

Such a formulation of the question as labor productivity in the context of higher education may seems unusual and controversial, since in most cases this issue is considered in the analysis of economic problems, of the use of such resources in production as the improvement of technology, equipment and management, working conditions and organization. However, this list of means for increasing labor productivity should include an analysis of the preliminary stages at which future specialists begin to develop a set of qualities for productive work - educational process in all its diversity, which receives insufficient attention. The article identifies the forms of participation of Russian universities in solving one of the central tasks in increasing the efficiency of the economy - training future specialists for productive work. As a rule, the concepts ‘productive labor’ and ‘labor productivity’ are used in relation to the real production, as evidenced by numerous studies, technological and economic policies, and actual production activity. The article shows that for the implementation of the national program “Labor Productivity and Employment” the preparatory stage for solving this problem is especially important, which involves a radical reconstruction of the universities’ strategies for training students for future work: career guidance, professional selection, professional practice, and professional adaptation. The author considers these forms of the higher education participation in solving problems of labor productivity and productive labor referring to the research conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and by the Russian State University for the Humanities and to the conclusions and suggestions of scientists, teachers and practitioners who studied, applied and/or summarized the experience of students’ preparation for future professional life.

Ukrainian Sociological Institute: Factional Politics, Research, and Intelligence Services in the Development of Ukrainian Sociology

In the history of Ukrainian sociology, it is considered that there were two organizations with the name "Ukrainian Sociological Institute". This article argues that they should be seen as two stages of one process — the academic and disciplinary institutionalization of Ukrainian sociology, which took place amid an (un)favorable and contradictory political struggle among Ukrainian revolutionary socialists (“esers”). This study attempts to characterize the context of this struggle and its significance for the institutional development of Ukrainian sociology in the first third of the 20th century. Ukrainian “esers” played a key role in endorsing the idea of establishing a professional sociological institution. The notion that the history of the two institutes should be considered separately emerged due to the competition between two opposing “eser” factions, one rallying around Mykhailo Hrushevsky and the other around Mykyta Shapoval. The article also provides an analysis-based overview of the institute's activities, considering the international context of contemporary sociology's development, using archival documents and sources of that time. Despite not always favorable conditions, the Ukrainian Sociological Institute (USI) spurred the emergence of new research directions and established a meaningful dialogue with the global sociological community. While much of the work of the USI has become part of the history of social and behavioral sciences, the author formulates three theses that, in his opinion, attest to the potential value of studying the USI's activities for modern Ukrainian sociology: rediscovering potential classics and seeking theoretical insights, decolonization/decommunization of Ukrainian sociology, and the first example in the history of Ukrainian sociology of a "strong program" through dialogue with civil society. It is argued that the USI was able to work quite effectively, primarily by skillfully integrating its activities into the network of civic initiatives and communities of Ukrainians on several continents, thereby testing sustainable practices that remain relevant today.

Social structure of Ukrainian society under the influence of full-scale war: conceptual and empirical research

This research is devoted to analyzing the changes that took place in the social-group structure of Ukrainian society during a year and a half of full-scale war. In order to realize this goal, firstly, the author considers the experience and conceptual foundations of the study of the relationship between war and social structure in Western and Ukrainian science and proposes a concept of the impact of total war on the social structure of a society that resists external aggression. Secondly, several preconditions of social-group dynamics were clarified — both destructive (due to which Ukraine quickly acquired characteristic features of the social structure during the martial law), and constructive (which contributed to the reproduction of pre-war social positions of citizens and a high degree of stability of the social system in general). Thirdly, the dynamics of the distribution of social groups and classes was analyzed every six months of the war based on various open official sources and the data of sociological surveys (in particular, the project “Social Inequality: Wartime Monitoring”, which was initiated by the researchers of the Department of Social Structures of the Institute of Sociology, NAS of Ukraine). The author proves that during the year and a half of the full-scale war, significant (both objective and subjective) socio-structural changes took place among the economically active population, though not linear ones, but with certain fluctuations (a rapid and significant transformation in the first six months and a movement towards gradual recovery over the next year). In particular, a significant (three-fold) increase in two groups (members of the armed forces and the unemployed), which were outside economic activity and accounted for almost a third of the working-age population in September 2022, and a quarter — a year later. The most noticeable changes among the employed population were the reduction in the number and restructuring of the working class and the class of owners, including the oligarchs. Fourthly, the author makes a forecast of further social-group dynamics under favorable and unfavorable developments: how will the quantitative distribution and internal structure of the main classes and groups change, as well as the social structure of the country in general.

Accountability in pan-European borrowing: mind the gap

The European Union (EU) is now borrowing on the scale of a large state to address challenges ranging from COVID-19 to the war in Ukraine. However, there has been limited comparative research on how pan-European borrowers can and should be held to account. This article offers a normative justification for why such borrowing should be accountable before showing how accountability practices diverge from a set of accountability expectations derived from three baseline theories: liberal intergovernmentalism, sociological institutionalism and historical institutionalism. Through elite interviews and online archival analysis, we show that the vertical accountability of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank and the European Stability Mechanism to national parliaments in six EU member states varies. Our findings also show that horizontal accountability has been constrained by the European Parliament’s limited involvement in borrowing decisions until recently and that patchy interest from national auditors has undermined diagonal accountability. As EU borrowing increases in importance, these accountability gaps urgently need to be filled.

Identity-policy discrepancy: crisis perception, third-order change and the shifting foreign policy trajectories of China and Japan toward Northeast Asia

ABSTRACT Although common, the identity-policy discrepancy has yet to be systematically theorised in the Identity Constructivist literature. This article bridges this gap, leveraging insights from Historical and Sociological Institutionalism, Norm Constructivism, and Post-structuralism to explore the theoretical and empirical weight of such discrepancies. I argue that discrepancies tied to a nation’s hegemonic narratives can spark crises, engender compelling expectations upon recognition, and drive third-order changes as actors endeavour to address these discrepancies. The article illuminates the significant role that discrepancies played in molding the foreign policies of China and Japan, with a focus on regional institution-building in Northeast Asia. The article emphasises the stark contrast between Hu Jintao’s Peaceful Riser identity and his assertive policy actions, alongside the Democratic Party of Japan’s (DPJ) Pacifist State identity juxtaposed with policies akin to those of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). These discrepancies significantly shaped the policy approaches and identity construction of their successors.

The Impact of War on Interethnic Godparenthood in Ukraine

The study examines whether kumivstvo, godparenthood, with its, with its moral and spiritual cultural heritage in Ukrainian society, provides normative power from the bottom up rather than top down for maintaining solidarity in a polyethnic society in the face of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A mixed methodology is employed, carried out by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. The quantitative findings report how common kumivstvo is in Ukrainian society, what its density is among different faiths and in different regions, how important the kinship heritage is to Ukrainians today, and what the proportion of interethnic kumivstvo is. The qualitative interviews reveal to what degree Russia’s invasion has desolated the trust and godparent connection between the Ukrainian and Russian peoples. There is immense strain on the integrity of these relationships; however, for some it is imaginable that these bonds may not only endure, but also revive afterward. The study asks whether Ukraine will lose an essential social structure and kinship custom that sustains its cultural hybridity when interethnic kumivstvo becomes unviable after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Theorizing power and agency in state-initiated municipal climate change adaptation: integrating reflexive capacity into adaptive capacity

Abstract. Based on a review of existing research on adaptive capacity, we identify a research gap in theorizing institutions, power structures, and agency in municipal climate change adaptation processes. Drawing on sociological institutionalism, governmentality, and communicative planning theory, we use post-structuralist concepts of power to to elucidate the collective (de-)mobilization of existing stocks of capacities within municipal institutions of adaptation with a focus on structural power and agency in participation processes. The concept of reflexive capacity is introduced as the ability of organizations such as municipal administrations to incorporate diverse stakeholders and knowledge into decision-making processes in a local context, which is derived from the relationship of power with with power over. The emergence and transformation of reflexive capacity are illustrated and discussed with one case study municipality in Germany, revealing the potential of this concept for the analysis of participation in adaptation processes and the power structures that are inherent to them. In the paper, we incorporate the concept of reflexive capacity with established concepts of adaptive capacity, creating an integrated framework termed institutional adaptive capacity. The analysis concludes that examining power structures and agency in the context of climate change adaptation explains how capacity stocks and individual psychosocial capacity mobilization are institutionally embedded and influenced by reflexive capacity. We argue that the consideration of power structures and agency can provide a complementary approach to explaining adaptive capacity and call for further transdisciplinary empirical research on this topic in different settings of state-initiated adaptation processes.

Verfallende Infrastruktur bei Rekordeinnahmen: Eine Institutionssoziologie bundesdeutscher Haushaltspolitik

ZusammenfassungIn den 2010er-Jahren betrieb die deutsche Regierung eine strukturkonservative Haushaltspolitik, was eine schwache staatliche Investitionstätigkeit trotz günstiger fiskalischer Bedingungen zur Folge hatte. Wie lässt sich das erklären? Die Literatur zum deutschen Haushaltsregime hat jüngst vor allem die Tradition des Ordoliberalismus sowie das konservative deutsche Wohlfahrtsmodell angeführt, um dieses BRD-typische Muster der Ausgabenpolitik zu hintergründen. Der Beitrag bietet stattdessen eine institutionssoziologische Erklärung, die das für die Haushaltspolitik grundlegende Beziehungsmuster zwischen Parlament, Regierung und Verwaltung fokussiert. Qua Ressortprinzip sind die relativ eigenständigen Minister mitsamt ihren Spitzenbeamten die zentralen Protagonisten der bundesdeutschen Haushaltsverhandlungen, in denen sich Partei- und Ressortpolitik überlagern. Der Finanzminister verfügt in der tradierten Rollenstruktur der deutschen Kabinettsordnung über eine besondere Machtstellung, was ihm die Profilierung als „Sparsamkeitsminister“ nahelegt. Umgekehrt verfügen die Repräsentanten der Koalitionsparteien und des Bundestages wie auch die Verwaltungsspitzen der anderen Ministerien über ein je spezifisches Profil an Machtmitteln. Diese Konstellationen bringen inkrementalistische Interaktionen in der Exekutive hervor, die je nach Umständen in der Erstreitung marginaler Ausgabenspielräume oder der Kürzung freiwilliger Ausgaben resultieren. Diese Verhandlungslogiken laufen einer umfassenderen Investitionsplanung zuwider. Die Rolle des Bundestags beschränkt sich trotz seiner formalen haushaltspolitischen Souveränität darauf, die Unterstützung oder Missbilligung von Ministern zu kommunizieren. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich, dass das institutionelle Macht- und Rollenprofil der Ministerien, das in den Haushaltsverhandlungen zur Geltung kommt und in dem das BMF traditionell als mächtiger Vetospieler agiert, die Kontinuität des haushaltspolitischen Strukturkonservatismus über Machtwechsel hinweg garantiert.

Institute of Sociology, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences

Institute of Sociology, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences

Individualism and Collectivism as a Subject of Social-Philosophical Analysis (Reflections on the Eve of the Scientific Conference “Individualization and Collectivism in Contemporary Russian Society”)

The Branch of Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Center for Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the RAS, the RAS Institute of Philosophy, and the RAS Institute of Psychology are arranging “Individualization and Collectivism in Contemporary Russian Society” scientific conference, to be held in Moscow, April 2024. The event marks the 300th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the 95th birth anniversary of the Russian philosopher and social theorist A.S. Akhiezer. Its primary objective is to foster the development of criteria for analyzing intersubjective relations within the act of social development. The conference’s focus on the investigation of social development is grounded in the dominants of contemporary philosophical-sociological non-classics and proposes several topics for discussion. These include the transition from the absolutization of Kant’s categorical imperative, which mandates the consideration of humans solely as the ultimate end in the system of intersubjective communication and the knowledge process, to an alternative consideration of humans as means of self-improvement and a crucial resource for social development (V.S. Bibler). It encompasses the rejection of absolutizing the function of contrasting faith and knowledge, the Self and the Other, the “own” and the “foreign,” scientific and everyday consciousness (V.A. Lectorsky, I.T. Kasavin, V.N. Porus). The interpretation of the meaning of personality shifts from concepts like cogito ergo sum, “pure Self,” “Self,” “Ego,” “Super-,” to the “ability of the Self to respond to the call of the Other,” thereby forming the smallest cell of the socio-individual as a synthesis of the social and the individual (M.M. Bakhtin, V.A. Lectorsky, R.S. Grinberg). Overcoming the established inequality of economic systems is addressed through the socio-individualism of small and medium-sized enterprises (A.S. Akhiezer, R.S. Grinberg). The conference also anticipates discussions on the following topics: How do the transfer and exchange of accumulated global knowledge from the individual to the other, and vice versa, contribute to the formation of small creative groups, serving as a communicative platform for nurturing socially oriented individuals – agents of social development? Moreover, how can dialogue be effectively constructed among participants of partnership relations who operate on differing premises (J.-P. Sartre)? The discussion is aimed at contemplating the contradictory, oxymoronic, yet dialogue and synthesis-oriented concepts of “individualization of the social,” “socially oriented individual,” and “socio-individualism.”

Запрос на перемены в современной России: медиа-мем, научная категория, социальная реальность

Authors of the research project developed an original interpretation of the term ‘demand for change’, used as a popular media meme since the early 2010s. It is proposed to define the term as a category in the theory of social change - an outward message from society as a whole or its significant part (documented, at least, by public opinion polls), addressed to the current government, informing it about the need to change the priorities of the country from ensuring stability to intensifying economic, social and political transformations. The prerequisite to actualize the demand for change in the 2010-2020s was a growing number of ‘self-sufficient’ Russians, confident in their ability to ‘move forward’ independently, and the fact that many of them realize that they cannot isolate their private lives from the political decisions of the current government, which they do not support. The monitoring surveys of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences allowed to analyse the long-term dynamics of changes among the Russians who express support for change (actors of the demand for change) and their structure. Over the past five years, the ratio of those who desire change to those who favour stability has stabilized at about 50:50. In the early 2020s, the demand for change remains ideologically amorphous and focused mainly on the social & economic agenda.

Features of building trust in municipal authorities among young Russians

The subject of this article is related to factors associated with the functioning of self-government as a social process. The main focus is on the level of trust in local authorities by citizens of different age groups. Research shows that trust in local self-government is closely linked to citizens’ civic activity. However, the analysis reveals an interesting situation: young Russians under the age of 25, despite their generally low interest in the socio-political aspects of society, demonstrate a higher level of trust in municipal authorities compared to representatives of other age groups. To study the specifics of the situation in more depth, the author of the article used an approach based on the generational characteristics of Russian society. The aim of the study is to identify the factors that motivate Russians under the age of 25 to trust municipal authorities more than representatives of other age groups. The authors of the article hypothesise that people of different ages may have different preferences for sources of information that shape their attitude towards local self-government, and this affects the level of trust. To test this hypothesis, data from representative population surveys conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the FCTAS RAS in 2016, 2018, and 2021 were used. The analysis of the surveys showed that contemporary Russian youth have a weak understanding of municipal authorities and how they operate in practice. Young people are not interested in traditional mass media through which the main information about municipal authorities is conveyed;instead, they rely on the opinions of people in their social circles. Young people have limited opportunities to obtain information about the activities of municipal authorities directly, as due to their age they have little experience of direct interaction with them. Therefore, an important source of information about municipal authorities for young people becomes observing how the activities of municipal authorities impact their local community. Significant part of young people are satisfied with the results of the activities of local authorities that they can observe. This satisfaction likely contributes to a higher level of trust in municipal authorities among this age group.

Heroism through the prism of reflections on the country and its future: assessments by generations

The phenomenon of heroism is multifaceted, and it can be viewed as representations of collective memory or through the lens of attitudes towards the country and its future. The theoretical foundation of this research is based, on the one hand, on a philosophical analysis of the semantic meanings of the concepts «hero» and «heroism», including variations in different cultures, and it defines the constants of the national semantics of heroism. On the other hand, it relies on the sociological theory of N. K. Mikhailovsky and the theory of social action, particularly the affective (borderline) theory. It also draws on the developments in creative and relational theories (M. Emirbayer, A. Mische), and relational sociology by P. Donati. The empirical part of the study involves the analysis of data from quota-based online surveys with a random sample, conducted by a group of sociologists and philosophers from the Institute of Sociology of the FCTAS RAS, Tyumen State University, and Vernadsky Crimean Federal University at the beginning of 2023. The survey included 1350 respondents from eight federal districts of the Russian Federation. The research results showed that heroes and heroism remain predominantly associated with the Soviet past, when the names, faces, and destinies of heroes were known from childhood, and the entire era was considered heroic. Heroism was ideologically supported and socially constructed during that time. In the present, heroes are usually depersonalised and associated with a group, such as the military or professionals. Post-Soviet generations had difficulty naming a hero on their own, as for a long time there was no social demand for this type of personality and behaviour. Regarding contemporary Russia, half of the respondents expressed positive feelings of pride, hope, and love, while some felt concern, disappointment, and shame. Furthermore, the clustering of responses indicated that feelings towards Russia are variable and not exclusively dichotomous. Respondents could simultaneously express love, disappointment, and hope. As for the future, respondents were much clearer about their own personal future (70% or more) than about the future of the country. The Soviet generation was more optimistic about the country’s future compared to the post-Soviet generations. This, among other signs, may suggest that post-Soviet generations found themselves in a situation where there was not only no demand for heroic personalities but also the state did not articulate a clear vision of the country’s future. Therefore, they have formed their own view of their personal future, which is seen more clearly and independently of the state’s goalsetting, while heroes and heroism are primarily associated with the Soviet past.