Cultural identity as a factor in strengthening the integrity of Russia

Understanding the essence of identity processes in the Russian society is possible only with understanding the content of modern Russian culture, its features and current state.

As part of the global civilization process, the Russian culture still maintains its unique nature. While serving the interests of the state, culture meets neither the challenge of state building nor the requirements to strengthen the integrity of Russia.

However, evaluating the cultural state of our society, it is necessary to take into account the priorities of traditional cultural patterns in the value system of the population. According to the VTSIOM studies (2013), the Russians (75% of the respondents) consider domestic culture and art as one of the main sources of pride. This suggests that the Russian culture is the expression of national power and, consequently, the potential to facilitate the statehood and the political system integrity.

Considering culture as an indicator of potential integrity of the Russian society, we will touch on the most essential aspects of its manifestation. However, we believe that the modern Russian culture is multifunctional, diverse and is a means of certain creativity, creative activity of a person, embodied in cultural values (products) and spirituality of a person (according to the concept of cultural activities by V.E. Davidovich and Yu.A. Zhdanov). Thus, culture is a measure of social progress, which is manifested through specific culture indicators. Cultural life embodies humanistic goals of society’s development in practice. They, in turn, determine the values of cultural socialization, giving a person access to identification processes.

The identification processes require the analysis of the culture functioning in the society, particularly from the point of view of the cultural influence of different social groups. In addition, the activities of cultural institutions, mass media and leisure activities at the level of institutions and personal preferences of citizens should be taken into account when analyzing the identification process of strengthening the integrity of Russia.

Among the most important socio-cultural factors that have an impact on cultural identity we can single out the following:

First, culture contributes to the formation of creativity standards, which affects the development of new trends in art, science, boosts innovative discoveries in general and encourages the development of knowledge and the transformation of the world. Culture promotes the development of new territories and communication, thus creating favorable conditions for life. However, this can also have negative consequences, such as expansion of nature, undermining common cultural ties, manifestation of different kinds of fanaticism and distribution of the negative impact of mass media.

Second, cultural identification is implemented in work, recreation and procreation. The voice channel of communication is very relevant as it expresses a certain level of culture. Development and improvement of the Russian language is of paramount importance for this type of identification processes. Russian is currently becoming a more significant form of identification, which updates the language of the different professions, the voice channel of politicians and youth relations.

Third, the feature of identification processes taking place in Russia today is that they are carried out in the context of global accumulation and storage of information. In the modern socio-cultural environment there are many different information flows. In this regard, cultural identification can promote renewal of oral and written speech, radio- and telecommunications and spread of the social experience of moral and religious attitudes. The conditions of information explosion, the modern Russian society is experiencing nowadays, on the one hand, globalize these processes, and, on the other hand, create additional conditions for new risks.

Fourth, culture helps to shape the regulatory and normative conditions of identification. It is culture that supports sustainability of traditions, helps to relate the identification theory to specific actions, coordinate the various types of the society’s identification potential. Culture develops identification standards (technical, moral, aesthetic, natural-climatic or environmental) that provide subjective and objective conditions of life.

Fifth, culture relieves stress in the identification process. The kinds of artistic culture – theatre, cinema, literature, painting, music – play a special role here. This hedonistic component is manifested in different types of leisure activities. Special identification efforts are required when addressing the economization of culture and its productivity in market conditions.

Sixth, nowadays the identification of culture and consideration of socio-cultural content of these processes set a task to create effective mechanisms for their protection. Cultural security can be implemented through the products of material culture (drugs, clothes, shoes, weapons, chemical countermeasures) and through spiritual culture (leisure, decent music, art, technical design, etc.).

Today when we find ourselves in the risk society, cultural security becomes crucial in identification processes.

Using culture as an identifying factor of strengthening the integrity of the Russian society, it is necessary to bear in mind that the social paradigm of this phenomenon involves the selection of number of levels: conceptual (research methods), empirical (specific sociological study of culture) and applied (management, economics, organization of cultural institutions).

The conceptual level is characterized primarily by the complex content and multifunctionality of culture as a sociosystem. At this level we develop the identification theory according to the specific laws of culture functioning. In this regard the identification of the lifestyle, education, science, mass media, national relations and even religious beliefs are possible. Obviously, it is caused by the updated categorical framework and scientific language of the theory and sociology of culture, which, in turn, is based on the social experience of culture and the processes of cultural self-identification of the society.

The conceptual structure and methodological content of sociocultural identity are largely determined through the empirical content of culture as a social institution. The sociological studies help to indicate a variety of empirical indicators and speci-fic forms of the identification process implementation by means of cultural activities.

The emphasis on the empirical component gives an opportunity to define the content of the sociocultural system of one or another institute of the cultural-spiritual sphere and reveal moral values, aesthetic standards and cultural behavior parameters required for successful identification.

This, in turn, helps to solve the identification problems of applied nature, offer effective specific proposals on the improvement of the society’s integrity and the management of these processes.

The identification can be carried out properly only with the cultural analysis of the society and the process of culture functioning in the society as the most important conditions to learn all socio-cultural aspects of life. Building identification paradigm, it is necessary to consider not only economic factors, but also to define clearly the noneconomic components of this process. Obviously, culture is becoming increasingly dominant today. It should be noted that the humanistic nature of identification processes in the Russian society makes culture a priority to strengthen the integrity of Russia. The spiritual part of the society as a whole and its individual members, in particular, has a significant influence on the processes of identification and promotes the effective solution of the identification integrity of the society.

Considering culture as identifying potential of these processes, it is necessary to rely on the images of culture, which are traditional for the Russian society and which reflect moral foundations of the Russian people. This is one of the important requirements for the appropriate use of culture as identification potential.

The analysis of the real state of society, its spiritual and cultural life, the use of the results of sociological understanding of these processes allow us to hope for a successful solution of the problems of cultural identification as a precondition for further development of the modern Russian state’s integrity.

Cited works

• 1.    Gorshkov M.K. Russian Society as It Is (the Experience of Sociological Diagnostics) . Moscow: Novyi khronograf, 2011. 672 p.

• 2.    Zhdanov Yu.A., Davidovich V.E. Essence of Culture . Rostov-on-Don: Nauka press, 2005. Pp. 195-428.

• 3.    Marshak A.L. Culture: Sociological Meanings and Social Realities. Foreword by RAS Academician M.K. Gorshkov. Moscow: NITs “Akademika”, 2013.