“Us- stranger” in the estimates of churched and unchurched russians

Текст статьи.

Abstract

In 2015 the paper’s authors undertook a study of the phenomenon of the refugee from southeast Ukraine. In the framework of this research studying “us” and “stranger” in the ideas of Russians, both men and women, was one of research tasks. The focus group method was chosen as the main research method. The next questions were considered in a panel discussion: Who are “us” to you? Who you would classify as “stranger”? Are refugees from southeast Ukraine are “us” or “stranger”? In this regard a special emphasis was put on the influence of confessional factor and the level of churching on the attitude to “us” and “stranger”, a hypothesis was advanced that practicing orthodox believers are tolerant to a greater degree, they tend to divide the world into “us” and “stranger” to a lesser degree. The paper is concerned with the results of this part of the research and to a certain extent gives an insight into the extent of alienation in the modern Russian society, the borders between “us” and “stranger”, gender features of perceiving “us” and “stranger”, the influence of confessional factor.