Attitude to Historical Events and Ideas about the Place and Role of Russia in the Modern World: based on online survey material

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of public attitudes by identifying beliefs and values, collectively shared meanings about the place and role of Russia and the "Russian World" in the modern world. It is based on the correlation of online survey data with All-Russian representative opinion polls and the involvement of the results of other studies. Most of the respondents are young people under 35 years old, constantly interested in politics, financially well–off, students or working in state institutions. A negative attitude to the collapse of the USSR and the change of power in Ukraine during the Maidan was recorded in more than sixty percent of respondents. The annexation of Crimea, the formation of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, and the entry of new regions into the Russian Federation in 2022 were positively assessed by two-thirds to three-quarters of respondents. There is an ambiguous attitude towards the special military operation and mobilization. In general, more than two thirds of the respondents are patriotic citizens who support the politics of the current government. It shows the coexistence of beliefs, at least of some respondents: on the one hand, the immanent acceptance of democratic institutions and traditions, relevant values, including the protection of human rights, on the other, the support of the state discourse of confrontation with the "collective West" – the source of these cultural and law ideas. The factors bearing the unifying potential for modern Russian society, in our opinion, can be expressed in such beliefs as: "Russia is an empire", "Russia is a great (world) power", the strong state that you can be proud of. The Russian idea (in the ethnic sense), a special civilizational, Orthodox identity, Messianism have fewer supporters.