Image of Russia’s Future and Civic Identity of Frontier Population

Abstract

Ideas about the future of Russia are an important category of modern social knowledge as they tend to correlate with civic identity. This sociological study was conducted in 2021 in four border regions, i.e., Altai Territory, Kaliningrad Region, Voronezh Region, and Khabarovsk Territory. The online survey (n = 1736) involved various social networks and other Internet resources. The survey covered such aspects as attitudes to Russia’s future and foreign policy, characteristics of modern Russia and the Russia of the future, changes in its image, development scenarios, etc. The ideas about the image of Russia’s future correlated with civic identity. The frontier residents saw Russia as a legal, just, democratic, and safe state that supports its citizens in difficult situations. Less than half of the participants look into the future of the country with optimism and hope, while every third frontier resident mentioned feeling pessimism, fear, or anxiety. Senior citizens of the Kaliningrad Region were especially optimistic. However, a third of young people under 30 demonstrated pessimism regarding the future of this country. Respondents with a low civic identity had a negative view of Russia in 50 years. They mentioned depopulation and mass emigration to developed countries, as a result of which Russia becomes a resource appendage that survives by sheer dictatorship of power. Respondents with a strong sense of civic community hoped for the better: the state will gain power on the world stage, strengthen its internal positions by an improved social policy, and return to time-tested traditions and moral values.