Images of the soviet Past as a Resource for the Formation of National-state Identity of Russians

Abstract

In the framework of the presented study, the author analyses the question of the role of images of the Soviet past in the formation of the national-state identity of Russians. The purpose of the study is to identify problems and perspectives for the transformation of the national-state identity of citizens of the Russian Federation by forming the image of the past as the main element of collective social memory. The methodological base of the research combines the features of descriptive political-cultural analysis and systematization of published big data of sociological surveys. The author concluded that attempts to destroy the heroic component of the Soviet symbolic heritage and replace it with a narrative associated with the pre-revolutionary period lead to the erosion of the value-symbolic foundations of group favouritism in Russian society, which causes resistance from carriers of Soviet and Russian identity. The synthesis of the symbolic heritage of the Soviet and pre-revolutionary erases based on the recognition of universal values, and historical continuity in the development of the Russian state seems to be the most reasonable option for using images of the past to strengthen the national-state identity of Russians.