Retro Orientation in Russian Political Perception: the Experience of Political and Psychological Research

The article examines the results of an empirical study on the perception of modern politics in Russian society. The author's attention is focused on the study of the manifestations of retro orientations in the Russian perception of politics of the present and past. Various psychological phenomena and states of the Russian mass political consciousness (political images, fears, expectations) are considered taking into account the trends in the formation of ideas about the past. Studied the retro orientations of Russians, manifested in the images of the country, political power, leaders, in assessing the status of the Russian state in the world arena. In his research, the author relies on a political and psychological approach, uses survey methods in combination with projective techniques. As a result of the analysis of the data obtained, several major trends in modern political perception were identified: the mythologization of images of the past, the personification of retro orientations of political perception, the demand for morality and the value of justice, the symbolic fragmentation of retro orientations and their sensitivity to information discourse, generational peculiarities of the perception of the past. Young Russians under thirty were more characterized by a fragmented, symbolically poor perception of history, the perception of modern Russian history as “an endlessly lasting present”. The observed features are explained by both the age factor and the specificity of political socialization of different generations. According to the data obtained, the modern Russian mass consciousness tends to perceive time as a nonlinear state with control points in the form of separate, unrelated events. A kind of “pressing of historical periods” in the perceptions of Russians was revealed. Retro orientation to the period of Soviet and especially post-Soviet Russia in political perception formed more meaningful, but at the same time unbalanced political images in terms of attractiveness, value orientations, and interpretive assessments of events. The study made it possible to test the conceptual model proposed by the author, to prove its research potential.

Keywords

retro orientation, image of the past, political perception, national and state identity, psychological state of society, political expectations, political fears, political and psychological analysis

Acknowledgment

The reported study was funded by Grants Council of the President of the Russian Federation according to the research project № MK-2081.2020.6 (agreement No. 075-15-2020-266) “The psychological state of Russian society in the face of external challenges: strategies of political and psychological research”.

Received

24.08.2020

Publication date

31.01.2021

Number of characters

60199

Cite

GOST	Smulkina N. Retro Orientation in Russian Political Perception: the Experience of Political and Psychological Research // ISTORIYA – 2021. – V. 12. – Issue 1 (99) [Electronic resource]. URL: https://history.jes.su/S207987840013818-8-1 (circulation date: 05.07.2024). DOI: 10.18254/S207987840013818-8
MLA	Smulkina, Natalia "Retro Orientation in Russian Political Perception: the Experience of Political and Psychological Research." ISTORIYA 12.1 (99) (2021) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840013818-8
APA	Smulkina N. (2021). Retro Orientation in Russian Political Perception: the Experience of Political and Psychological Research. ISTORIYA 12(1 (99)) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840013818-8

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