National Consensus or Social Anomaly?

Abstract

The dynamics of mass consciousness in Russia, formed in the wake of the 2014 events in Ukraine and Crimea, testify to the consolidation and radicalization of the popular majority. The national consensus has shaped a high level of public optimism even in the face of deteriorating socioeconomic conditions. However, this process brings to the fore archetypal traits that in many ways run contrary to the modern desire for mass consumption, which in many ways is also contrary to social mobilization. This contradiction will affect the political process, if not in the short- then in the long term, and will significantly affect the sociopolitical situation, making it less stable than in the first decade of the present century.

Keywords::

• anomaly
• consensus
• consolidation
• mobilization
• Crimean syndrome
• division of values
• archetypal consciousness
• field of problems

Notes

English translation © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text © 2015 “Svobodnaia mysl’.” “Natsional'nyi konsensus ili obshchestvennaia anomaliia? Ob osobennostiakh massovogo soznaniia v ‘postkrymskoi’ Rossii,” Svobodnaia mysl’, 2015, no. 4, pp. 58–73.Translated by Peter Golub.

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^3. The research presented hereinafter comes from the sociopolitical monitoring of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (headed by M. Gorshkov), the past two “waves” of this research were conducted at the end of 2014 and spring 2015.

^4. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM). The survey was conducted in April 2015.

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^6. The Levada Center. The monitoring was conducted in March 2014.

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