Civilizational identity of contemporary Russia: In search for research tools

The failed catch-up development of Russia, which implied joining the ranks of developed, modernized countries, again raised the question of how much civilizational type determines either Western or one’s own path of development, and for Russia the latter means the values of collectivism and strong power. Under the confrontation between these two paths, the issues of identity (as a field of political aspirations of the elites and masses) become especially important and relevant for most post-Soviet countries which show a complex interaction of group interests and identities due to the spread of individualistic, market, predominantly rational (mostly materially interpreted) meanings of life. For Russia, this interaction has become a challenge - to continue development according to the Western model or to find one’s own path, which means a return to traditional values and collectivist ideology and a rejection of liberal ideology. The article considers the features of the Russian civilizational identity and the possibilities of studying them based on the empirical data. The author emphasizes the civilizational heterogeneity of the Russian society as deeply differentiated by most economic, social and cultural criteria, which divides society into groups with specific lifestyles and value systems. Russian civilization is a heterogeneous, not fully formed and still developing multi-subject entity united by the state preserving cultural, national, religious and linguistic diversity. The article is based on the results of the representative all-Russian sociological survey conducted in 2023 and regional surveys in frontier regions - in the Northwestern, Southern and North Caucasus Federal Districts. This data helps to identify the civilizational vector of the country’s development, proving the complementarity of the ideas of the elites and the rest of society, age and settlement cohorts, residents of central and frontier, mononational and multiethnic regions.