Latov Y.V. The situation in Russian society and regions of the country in the assessments and judgments of Russians. In: Russian Society and the Challenges of the Time. Book seven ...

Abstract

Over the past decade, Russians have experienced three waves of large-scale changes that bring new challenges and threats - the crisis of 2014–2016, the covid pandemic of 2020–2021. and events related to SVO in Ukraine in 2022–2023. If between the first two waves there was a two-year period of relative calm, then the attenuation of the pandemic was immediately replaced by a military operation in Ukraine and an information war. As a result, Russians are beginning to forget how they can “just live” without fear of a sudden economic downturn, depreciation of money, terrorist attacks, frightening news, loss of health, etc. This “obstacle course”, which is still far from complete, is already comparable in duration and partly in consequences to the most dangerous periods for Russia of the last century - the bifurcation events of 1914–1921, 1939–1945. and 1991–1993 Therefore, the main question for Russia in the 2020s is how the population will ultimately be able to adapt to the “new reality.” Let’s consider to what extent Russians realize that they live in an “era of change,” how (dis)comfortable it is for them and, most importantly, what determines the awareness and experience of emerging dangers. Since the focus will be on the issue of (de)consolidation of Russians, when analyzing the listed topics, special attention is paid to the differences between different social groups.