According to the data of the all-Russian representative survey organized by the Institute of Sociology of the FCTAS RAS (September 2020, N = 2000), indicators characterizing the «spiritual atmosphere» are analyzed – social feelings, emotional assessments of the everyday situation and expectations for the future. Although, according to the self-assessments of Russians, they have a typically calm and balanced emotional state, when switching to assessments of the people around them, this state turns out to be typical for only about 1/3, and various negative emotions predominate. Analysis of dynamic changes showed that the emotional state of Russians worsens during periods of economic crises, including the current corona crisis. The proposed hypothesis about a direct relationship between the emotional state of Russians and their social actions was confirmed: in particular, the worse the emotional state of the respondents, the more often they refuse to plan their lives. Although the deterioration of the emotional state during the corona crisis poses a threat to mass history, high assessments of the favorableness of the «spiritual atmosphere» in the places of residence show that Russians are far from panic, although they often believe that the situation in the country as a whole is worse than where they live. The proposed observations and conclusions are considered in the context of the need for a general increase in the attention of sociologists to the emotional life of society.