Traditional value foundations of all-Russian identity: case study of the Northern Caucasus youth

Abstract

The issue of forming and sustaining all-Russian identity among the youth has become particularly relevant and significant in the context of increasing geopolitical risks and sociocultural confrontation. The value and ideological foundations of student identity vividly reflect the contradictions between two main sociocultural codes: traditional and modern. Resolving this contradiction may lead to increased stability in all-Russian identity or its gradual weakening. The research results indicate that the main elements of the traditional Russian value matrix retain their significance as the basis for all-Russian identity. The lack of significant differences in the assessments of respondents from the Russian and North Caucasian peoples, Orthodox and Muslim adherents, indicates the integrative role of traditional Russian values for people with different ethnocultural identities. In the hierarchy of identities, the local identity is prioritised for the respondents. This is followed by all-Russian civil, value-ideological, ethnocultural identity, and belonging to the “Russian world”. The attitude towards religion serves as a marker for value-ideological differences between traditionalists-collectivists and modernists-individualists. The research reveals statistically significant differences in the positions of non-religious respondents and believers. Respondents who do not associate themselves with any religious denomination have less pronounced ethnocultural and religious foundations of identity. The formation of traditional foundations for all-Russian youth identity is interpreted as evidence of a high degree of all-national consolidation in the polyethnic youth environment. The significance of traditional identification values indirectly confirms the partial depoliticisation of identity, as it transitions into the sociocultural dimension, that reduces the risks of ethnopolitical conflict.