RUSSIAN NATIONAL-STATE IDENTITY: FACING CHALLENGES OF THE EARLY 21ST CENTURY

The authors offer their definition of national-state identity: a macro-political construct that projects the image of “us” (an “imaginary community”) to various dimensions (value-based, temporal, spatial, and symbolic). This image is supported by state institutions as well as the political and cultural tradition of national sovereignty. In the article, special attention is paid to the four systemic challenges of the Russian national-state identity. The first challenge - internal political - stems from the costs and contradictions of the institutional organization of state identity policy in modern Russia. The second national identity challenge is due to information globalization and, as a result, a drastic change in the information and political landscape of Russian society. The third challenge is determined by weakness and vagueness of the collective image of the future in the political consciousness of Russian citizens. The fourth Russian identity challenge is geopolitical in nature and is associated with memory wars, which actively unfolded in the post-Soviet space in the 2000s-2010s. The authors conclude that an effective response to the Russian national-state identity challenges could be a complex state identity policy. This policy can be described as a long-term strategy for the formation of a conventional all-Russian identity “matrix” through building and promotion of a balanced, internally consistent image of “us” and a set of social and political views, attitudes and values associated with it.