Focus on finances as a factor of Russia's national vulnerability in the 21st century

In the previous article1, we analyzed reasons and consequences of soullessness of the ruling elites that is a clear result of the main principle of liberal capitalism – “to always look for personal profit”. We concluded that soullessness is the main source of contradictions accumulating in society and the public administration system. Therefore, it is necessary to look for a solution to this problem, first, in the spiritual, moral, cultural, and value sphere of the ruling elites, who largely set the “rules of the game” for the whole society and are responsible for the effective implementation of national development priorities. We also imply the search for an idea (ideology) that unites the elites and most population.

In this article, we will try to analyze some, in our opinion, negative trends soullessness of the ruling elites leads to and that are a threat to national vulnerability.

How much is ideology in demand in a society that is “focused on the material component of

“It has become common to recognize the predominance of material and egoistic motivations over idealism and solidarity in the mass consciousness and sociological monitoring. Most of the country’s social ideals in the 1990s were crumpled up and thrown into the basket of museum artifacts, ridiculed, and stunned... in general, by now, a liberal ideological mindset has been established in the mass consciousness, and even more so – in the elite consciousness” ² .

life”³? Does it objectively need it , if we take into account that the subjective need for ideology among the Russian population is still giving way to more urgent needs like increase in the level and quality of life, achievement of social justice that are associated with a high level of uncertainty of the future for the state and society in conditions of economic, social, political instability, as well as spiritual and moral degradation, which leads to the dominance of the liberal-capitalist idea in Russia and around the world?

It should be noted that this clarification is not accidental. Many Russian sociologists, analyzing the dynamics of public consciousness in the post-Soviet period, conclude that it is filled with contradictions and antinomies that represent “the existence of mutually exclusive positions, opposing orientations, each of which claims to be true, to realize its right to exist, to implement its attitudes, and ultimately to determine the strategy for the development of society on sufficiently convincing grounds”4.

“In Russian conditions, the theories and ideas of Liberal Democrats, being the expression of one point of view without considering another, of the majority of people in this case, had led to existing mutually exclusive views on its future and on ways to realize its long-term goals in post-Soviet Russia… Appearance of antinomies in modern Russian society can be attributed to the gap between the broadcast promises of the ruling elites and things that represent a real life of millions of people” ⁵ .

The reason for their appearance was a deep socio-cultural trauma inflicted on the natural process of the evolution of Soviet society by the betrayal of the ruling elites of the late 1980s-early 1990s, after which the Soviet Union collapsed, and a state arose on its ruins, not just an alien one, but completely and fundamentally contradicting an ordinary Soviet citizen (not only economic, but also socio-cultural, value foundations).

Contradictions in the social perception of many phenomena and processes of modern life have become a constant attribute of Russian society, inherent in it even now .

For instance, domestic experts concluded on the “contradictions of the population’s historical consciousness”. They write that “events turn out to be disconnected from specific historical stages of the country and seem to exist by themselves, outside of history... unambiguously positively evaluated events fall on periods of our history, which are generally perceived either as negative (Stalin’s dictatorship), or as generally “forgotten” (the USSR under Khrushchev), which indicates the inconsistency of the historical consciousness of Russians”6.

Some research results are given in insert 1 . Data obtained indicate that, during the periods of his presidential terms (compared to the post-war period of the USSR under N.S. Khrushchev and L.I. Brezhnev; before the liberal-capitalist ideology began to penetrate into Russian society under M.S. Gorbachev), V.V. Putin managed to regain people’s respect for the church and the army lost in the 90s (30–40%); a sense of patriotism, pride for the country and its international authority (25– 39%); opportunities for personal enrichment and professional growth (32–37%); authority of civil and political freedoms (30%).

However, at the same time, compared to the Soviet period, people’s perceptions of insecurity in the future have significantly increased (28% under V.V. Putin versus 4% under N.S. Khrushchev and L.I. Brezhnev), social injustice (28% vs. 8%), people more often note corruption (48% vs. 9–20%), crime and international tension (20–30% vs. 6%).

Respondents were less likely to experience feelings of cheerfulness (9% vs. 30%), presence of ideals (8% vs. 25%), equality of everyone before the law (8% vs. 16%), social security (16% vs. 18–37%), the level of trust between people decreased (7% vs. 16–36%).

Significantly fewer citizens mention that, under V.V. Putin, Russia can be proud of its success in the arts (13% vs. 20–27%), science (21% vs. 24–28%), education (10% vs. 25–30%), industry (9% vs. 22–28%), agriculture (7% vs. 20–40%).

Along with all-Russian studies, inconsistency of public consciousness is also shown by data of long-term public opinion monitoring, which is implemented regionally by VolRC RAS. Surveys, conducted in the Vologda Oblast, indicate that more than half of the population (50–70%) consistently noted the positive role of mass media in the life of the country in 2005–2020 (Fig. 1) , but no more than 30% of citizens trust them (this is one of the lowest indicators of institutional trust⁷).

Thus, the inconsistency of public consciousness, which emerged during the sociocultural crisis of the early 1990s, is still a characteristic of Russian society.

Source: public opinion monitoring data of VolRC RAS.

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We can talk about the same inconsistency regarding the need of Russian society for ideology. On the one hand, the President’s appeal to socio-cultural aspects in his public statements has always aroused support among the population and formed the basis of the deep state8.

We can, for example, recall how confidently the level of support for the President of the Russian Federation grew during the

“Crimean spring”, when many experts called the psychological state of society nothing but “euphoria”¹⁰ (Fig. 2) .

The results of voting on amendments to the Constitution, most of which are aimed at strengthening national identity and strengthening the social obligations of the state, are no less indicative10. We would like to remind that, on July 1, 2020, more than 74 million people took part in the referendum on

Figure 2. Dynamics of the approval of activities of the RF President by residents of the Russian Federation and the Vologda Oblast, % of respondents

Data for 2013–2014 according to the periods of “waves” of the VolRC RAS monitoring (February, April, June, August, October, December) are presented.

Source: public opinion monitoring data of VolRC RAS.

Table 1. Voter turnout and the share of votes cast for V.V. Putin in the presidential elections from 2000 to 2018, as well as for amendments to the Constitution in 2020

RF Presidential election All-Russian vote on amendments to the Constitution (July 1, 2020) March 26, 2000 March 14, 2004 March 4, 2012 March 18, 2018 abs. % abs. % abs. % abs. % abs. % turnover 75181071 68.74 69581430 64.39 71780800 65.34 73624100 67.54 74215555 67.97 votes 39740434 52.94 49563020 71.31 45602075 63.60 56426399 76.69 57747288 77.92 amendments to the country’s Basic Law, and nearly 58 million people supported the vector of Russia’s development toward strengthening the foundations of a welfare state (Tab. 1). Indicators were record ones, if we compare them with the support of V.V. Putin during all presidential elections he participated in. It is worth noting that this was, in fact, a referendum on personal trust in V.V. Putin, since, unlike presidential elections, there were no other candidates.

On the other hand, the key problems, which concerned population throughout the postSoviet period, were financial: poverty, inflation, low standard of living, income inequality, housing provision… On such background, a problem like “soullessness, rampant immorality” simply fades, which, obviously, can be considered a result of the state’s management inefficiency that “threw off” concern for the future, including moral and moral image of younger generations, from its shoulders.

Thus, the share of people concerned about inflation increased from 55 to 58% (by 3 p.p.) in 1999–2020; the problem of society stratification into “poor” and “rich” –

“...the vector of the evolution of mass consciousness in Russia over the past 40 years is visible: shift in favor of “materialism” and “egoism” has significantly undermined, even switched the course of the system of key values on which the worldview, life guidelines, and behavior of Russians were built…

Two ambitious values burst into Russian life – individualism, with its success at any cost for the sake of power, profit, and fame, and materialism, as a preference of material success to other one – creativity, family happiness, search for truths and similar ideal matters” ¹¹ .

from 21 to 35% (by 14 p.p.); the problem of housing supply – from 12 to 25% (by 13 p.p.; tab. 2 ). For comparison, maximum 18% of respondents named “soullessness, rampant immorality” one of the most urgent problems during the entire period from 1999 to 2020,

In addition, a kind of a marker is that, according to Russian studies12, material priorities and life success are more important for new generations of Russians than compliance with the laws of morality and morality. We discussed this in more detail in the previous article13.

Table 2. Most urgent problems that concern population*

Problem	1999		2000		2004		2008		2012		2018		2020
	%	Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank
Inflation	54.5	2	44.7	2	39.5	1	56.3	1	55.3	1	53.7	1	57.9	1
Low standard of living, poverty	57.1	1	50.8	1	32.8	4	41.4	2	43.2	2	51.1	2	53.8	2
Stratification of population into “poor” and “rich”	21.3	9	27.7	7	30.8	5	31.4	4	37.5	3	35.9	3	35.3	3
Problem of housing provision, low housing affordability	11.8	14	16.8	9	23.1	9	36.3	3	28.6	4	23.5	4	25.0	4
Economic instability, stopping of enterprises	39.6	4	29.1	6	14.8	13	17.0	10	16.5	11	22.5	6	24.6	5
Social insecurity of citizens	32.5	6	34.4	4	28.7	6	24.8	7	22.3	8	19.9	9	23.8	6
High crime rate, insecurity from criminals, hooliganism	33.4	5	36.9	3	34.2	3	28.4	5	25.5	6	19.0	10	20.2	7
Political instability	21.9	8	16.0	10	8.7	17	7.8	15	11.2	16	23.1	5	19.5	8
Corruption, bribery	14.8	11	15.4	11	18.7	10	17.5	9	19.8	9	21.9	7	17.5	9
Unsatisfactory quality of engineering infrastructure (housing and communal services, roads, transport, etc.)**	n.d.	n.d.	n.d.	n.d.	n.d.	n.d.	n.d.	n.d.	25.3	7	20.1	8	16.7	10
Soullessness, rampant immorality	11.6	15	15.1	12	18.2	11	11.0	14	12.2	13	13.5	15	10.7	17

* Ranked according to data for 2020. 23 problems were in the survey.

** The answer option has been included in the questionnaire since 2012. Source: public opinion monitoring data of VolRC RAS

Thus, analyzing the problem of soullessness, it is important to proceed not only from the subjective need of population to overcome it, but also from the specifics of objective negative consequences that it entails for the state and society.

To do this, we would like to pay attention to two aspects. The first one – about the results the global ruling elites achieved in a historical fight for global dominance. According to experts, Biden and the forces behind him embody the culmination of a historical process that emerged in the Middle Ages, reached maturity in Modern times with the emergence of capitalist society, and achieved its last stage today – theoretically planned from the very beginning14.

The second aspect is the question how much the values lobbied by the global ruling elites contribute to strengthening the psychological state of society and the foundations of the deep state directly in Russia.

Let us explore data of the respected international project “European Social Survey”, in which Russia has been participating since 2006. As stated on the official website of the project, the study is conducted “in most European countries”15. For comparison with Russia, we selected key Western Europe countries that have a high geopolitical status and have never missed participating in the project in 2016–2018. Thus, along with the Russian Federation, Germany, Great Britain, and France were included in the sample16.

In the context of the tasks, set by us, the fact that the level of the economy and the standard of living of the population in these European countries is significantly higher than in Russia says a lot (Tab. 3) , especially if we consider national “differences” of the methodology for calculating poverty.

Moreover, it should be noted that, for 2000– 2019, average annual GDP growth rates in Russia (+102.9 US dollars on average per year)

“There are many different methods for identifying and reducing poverty. For example, some consider not monetary poverty, but “poverty due to deprivation”: when a family lacks certain goods and services, it is considered dysfunctional, and targeted assistance is provided to it. Nearly 17 such categories of goods and services are in the EU. Our Rosstat considers, if my memory serves me right, 8 of such registered benefits, the absence of which indicates a family’s trouble” ¹⁷ .

were significantly lower than in the leading European countries: Great Britain (+177.9), Germany (+241.4), France (+177.9).

Despite this, European states are more covered by the “fire” of mass protest activity than Russia: the protest movement of the “yellow vests” in France (against the increase in fuel prices; 2018), “All Black Lives” groups in the UK (against racism; 2019–2020), “Querdenker 711” in Germany (against the easing of curfew restrictions during the pandemic; 2020), a wave of environmental protests almost throughout Europe and the United States (2019), Brexit in the UK (2016), etc. – these are typical examples of the discontent of ordinary people with the existing standards of efficiency of public administration.

Table 3. Dynamics of GDP per capita*, 2019, in 2010 cons. prices, US dollars

Country 2000 2010 2019 Dynamics (+ / –), 2019 to 2000 Average annual dynamics for 2000–2019 Germany 37934.5 41531.9 47469.5 +4827.8 +241.4 France 38309.4 40638.3 44320.1 +5483.3 +274.2 Great Britain 35672.9 39435.8 43710.5 +3557.8 +177.9 Russia 6491.1 10675.0 12011.5 +2057.5 +102.9 * Ranked in descending order of GDP per capita in 2019. Source: World Bank data. Available at:

15 Official website of the European Social Survey. Available at:

16 France did not participate in the study in 2012. However, given its status in Europe, we decided to keep its place in the sample.

¹⁷ Exorcist Golikova will expel the poor from the country (interview with V.N. Bobkov). Argumenty Nedeli. February 7, 2019. P. 3.

Lukyanov F.A. (chairman of the Presidium of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy of Russia): “We deal with a global process. For various reasons, more and more residents of different countries express distrust in the upper strata... In general, Russia is not an island, but a continent of stability within the trend. But if there is a trend, the waves roll in, and it is difficult to predict what will happen in the next years” ¹⁸ .

Kuznetsov G.S. (head of the Expert Council of the Expert Institute for Social Research): “The common features of the new treaty in the eyes of the protesters are the state as an instrument for distributing wealth in favor of the majority, justice is not in labor, but in the distribution of benefits. People just want to get a larger share of the national wealth, considering the current system unfair” ¹⁹ .

Sokolova E.N. (political scientist, head of the Department of Strategic Research and Forecasting of the EISR): “Russia and Kazakhstan were at the end of the rating showing street activity of the opposition from different countries, while a number of protests in the Russian Federation even decreased in 2019” ²⁰ .

These facts of real life indicate that the level and quality of life, although they are a prerequisite for achieving a constructive consensus between the government and society, are not its guarantor. Consequently, goal-setting as a function of the public administration system, based on meeting only financial needs of the population, is vulnerable a priori. Such goalsetting any time can lead to internal undermining of the foundations of existing state system, for which it is enough to “throw” into society this or that idea that (as recent years have shown) may seem insane.

“Back in 2008, the French government created a research group led by Professors A. Sen, J.E. Stiglitz, J.-P. Fitoussi. The final report of this group was published in September 2009 (Sen, Stiglitz, Fitoussi, 2009). It shows that GDP (or GRP – internal regional product) very poorly reflects financial wellbeing of people in society, and its maximization is a false goal of national policy ” ²¹ .

Data of the European Social Survey allow us to clearly demonstrate the dynamics of the results achieved by the global ruling elites in the process of establishing their dominance – primarily ideological.

On the one hand, we see that, in 2006– 2018, the share of people who are tolerant of the rights of sexual and national minorities, as well as those who advocate the continuation of globalization, increased in key countries of Western Europe (Germany, France, Great Britain) ( Insert 2A ). On the other hand, traditional cultural, spiritual and moral values associated with religiosity and, especially, marriage and family attitudes have “shaken”, and this has affected not only Europeans.

Thus, in 2006–2018, the share of people who regularly attend religious services in Germany and France decreased (by 4 p.p.; insert 2B). In Great Britain, the proportion of those who consider themselves religious people has decreased (by 2 p.p.). In all studied countries (including Russia), the share of officially married people has decreased (by 15–26 p.p.), as well as the share of those who have (or have ever had) their own or adopted children (for 15–24 p. p.).

It should be noted that the authors position is not aimed at criticizing tolerance itself. As the President of the Russian Federation noted, “there have been, are, and will be no restrictions on rights based on race, sexual orientation, and attitude to religion in Russia”22, and this, in our opinion, is correct.

The threat is that under the guise of fighting for the rights of certain social groups, the global ruling elites are solving their historical tasks, and not contributing to the achievement of global peace. We have given specific figures indicating a decrease in the population and the discrediting of traditional cultural and value

“The current diversity of the ideological state of society is characterized by something that can be called “spreading”. The further society goes, the more it splits into individual atoms in its value spectrum, each of which has its own micro- and nano-ideology, flexible, usually unsystematic, value orientation, and account in the host of social networks, which is the more valuable, the more original in the sense of the shocking creativity” ²³ .

institutions (religions) in insert 2. In inserts 3–4 , expert opinions are presented, which, in our opinion, show in the most concentrated form the true goals pursued by the global ruling elites, and the tools used to achieve them.

Decline of demographic potential and the destruction of the existing system of spiritual, moral, and socio-cultural values are tools that are purposefully used by the global ruling elites to establish global dominance and create the “breed of service people”24. Russian society fully experienced their negative impact during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Currently, Western Europe countries are influenced by global ruling elites. Deeply traditional nature of Russian mentality, psychological rejection of the “wild 90s” period by most population, historical memory of the USSR as one of the most powerful powers in the world, nationally oriented foreign policy, implemented by V.V. Putin, prevent the negative influence of the “collective West” and preserves the commitment of a significant part of Russians to traditional spiritual and moral values.

“The experience of the last three decades in Russia shows that most people do not accept not just “crony capitalism”... but the entire capitalist structure of society with its liberal ideology” ²⁵ .

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Dugin A. Manifesto of the Great Awakening. Official website of the Izborsky Club. March 6, 2021. Available at:

Insert 4

Azarov V. Liberalism as ideology. Official website of N.Starikov. July 5, 2012. Available at:

Nevertheless, Russia is a part of the world, and therefore it feels the influence of global forces. The “key” to opening the doors to the “Russian world” for them is the ruling elites inside the country, who lobby the interests of the “collective West” considering themselves a part of it. Although they are not. Russian elites have close family and working ties with the West, but they are all personal. This could be understood if we were talking about only business – mutually beneficial cooperation of entrepreneurs to increase their profits. But, given close interweaving of economic and political elites in Russia, this “mutually beneficial cooperation” becomes part of public administration, which contributes to the personal enrichment of its subjects, but contradicts national interests: mostly the interests of national security and prospects.

This is where the essence of capitalism fully shows itself, when personal material gain pushes into the background ideological issues and national interests.

We are talking about the demographic potential of Russia: perhapsб the quintessence and the main criterion for the effectiveness of public administration.

“Regardless of whether big business acts directly or uses informal lobbying, it has much more “access to politics”, more opportunities to influence political decisions compared to most other groups of voters whose interests are not represented professionally or at all.

Voters have one vote in each electoral cycle. But business circles, along with other interested groups, have a second stage when they can finance political parties, express their views through their representatives in official government meetings, as well as through informal lobbying mechanisms. Representatives of large businesses can directly influence government representatives, enter negotiations that are denied to all other citizens, whose interests are often not represented at all. As a result, the interests of most citizens are not considered at all” ²⁸ .

“Demography is not an area where only administrative and economic methods are appropriate and effective. The demography reflects the long-term experience of the nation, deep values of individuals and all groups of society, culture – everything that goes back, in the end, to the meaning of life. Although these concepts seem amorphous, the role of reality that they express is enormous” ²⁹ .

According to demographers, “in 1990– 1999, 9 million fewer people were born in Russia than in 1980–1989... The total natural population decline in Russia for 1992–2008 was 12.6 million people”30.

A decrease in the population is a weakening of the country’s human and intellectual potential, its competitive advantages, and it is a threat to national security. In his key speeches, V.V. Putin draws attention to the fact that “saving people of Russia is our highest national priority”31; one of the new amendments to the Constitution states that “children are the most important priority of Russia’s state policy”32 .

In recent years (especially during the coronavirus pandemic), the President has initiated unprecedented measures to support population: maternal capital, various kinds of social payments, ensuring healthy nutrition in schools, and much more.

However, as many experts note, “ transformation of the world order and demographic problems is not an area where the desired effect is achieved by simply increasing investment in “human capital”, which is certainly extremely necessary ... It is necessary to look for solutions not only in the intricacies of the “regulatory framework”, but in understanding the problems and tasks throughout the human life cycle from the cradle to the churchyard, and, most importantly, reasons a person lives for ”³³.

“Even before the coronavirus crisis, Russian birth rates were worse than in many European countries... The coronavirus crisis has worsened the situation.

The state’s financial assistance to parents is a vital, but not sufficient measure of demographic policy. It is obvious that after the birth of a child, it is extremely difficult for a family of even three people to live on father’s salary, if it is 30–40 thousand rubles. Namely, this is the income of people in towns of central Russia. One-time budget payments cannot radically change them...

Since economic and demographic problems mutually aggravate each other, the way out of the vicious circle is seen in non-economic factors” ³⁴ .

The lack of understanding the latter factor, ignored role of this factor in solving demographic problems by the ruling elites, attempt not to supplement, but to replace it with intensive usage of material, financial, legal, etc. tools lead to a steadily high proportion of people who are not confident in their future, which, in turn, affects their desire to have children.

“General logic is simple: in order for people to have a desire to have children, it is necessary to significantly improve their prospects for the future” ³⁵ .

Data of the public opinion monitoring, conducted by VolRC RAS, show that the increase in the share of people who are not sure about the future has become a record against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, but not the only one for the entire measurement period . Today, in the conditions of enormous uncertainty and complex (not only epidemiological) threats for each person, the share of people who are not sure about their future is 57% (Fig. 3) . However, this force majeure situation is quite comparable, for example, with the beginning of the 2000s (2000–2002, when this share was 56–60%) and the middle of the 2010s (2014–2016, 55–61%).

In general, over the period from 2000 to 2020, the share of people experiencing fear of the future decreased by only 4 p.p. (from 61 to 57%), but it is not even a “positive” dynamic that is important, but a significant scale of the spread of disbelief in the future, which over the past ten years is natural for every second person.

Thus, the pandemic and complex negative consequences, caused by it, cannot be considered the source of people’s uncertainty about the future (at least, the only one). A real factor is their dissatisfaction with the consequences of the currently dominant liberal-capitalist system of values.

Figure 3. Share of people experiencing uncertainty about the future (Vologda Oblast), % of respondents

Source: VolRC RAS data.

50–60% of people from the studied countries claim that capitalism does more harm than good (Tab. 4) . The same number of people are afraid that they will lose their position in society under capitalism. Only 20–35% believe that their families will live better in five years than they do now.

Thus, the results of Russian and foreign studies indicate that material well-being is not a panacea for problems associated with the level of social tension, state of psychological sympathy of societyб and awareness of its future prospects .

Focus on the material (in the ruling elites, society) contributes to the achievement of the goals set by the global elites, further development of the country according to the liberal-capitalist idea. It makes it impossible for the international status of the leading powers to be equal in the global political arena (in fact, it levels the real state of the multipolar world) and confuses the probability of cardinal positive shifts in solving the most important problems within the country (canceling the prospect of Russia’s competitiveness in the near future).

The real facts, demonstrated by official statistical sources and respected international studies, prove that the fundamental historical confrontation between global forces and national interests of individual states, between the liberal-capitalist ideology and basic principles, expressed in the concept of the

Table 4. Psychological state of population in the studied countries, % of respondents *

Country Share of people who believe that they and their families will live better in five years Share of people who are afraid of losing their position in society Share of people who believe that capitalism does more harm than good France 19 62 69 Germany 23 52 55 Russia 34 52 55 Great Britain 27 49 53 For reference: Japan 15 42 35 Canada 35 48 47 USA 43 55 47 China 69 59 63 India 77 73 74 Average for 28 countries** 47 57 56 * Ranked in descending order of the share of people who believe that capitalism does more harm than good. ** 28 countries included in the study sample: Thailand, India, France, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Italy, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Colombia, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, Germany, Russia, South Africa, Kenya, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain, Argentina, Australia, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan. Source: Edelman Trust Barometr – 2020. Available at:

“There have been no significant changes in the liberal model of the country for many years, and even the crisis of 2014–2015. The commitment to the liberal model is only confirmed. Accordingly, the degradation processes that turn into crisis processes also take the form of a stable type of processes.... Thus, the latest historical process, in which Russia is immersed, has become more definite. Based on his qualitative vision, the most likely conservative options, according to the study, are not surprising. This is a scenario of prolongation of the liberal model, a scenario of balancing on the threshold of sustainable development…” ³⁶ .

welfare state, not just exists, but it becomes more and more culminating. Victory after victory, the global ruling elites automatically increase the level of dissatisfaction with the existing liberal ideology in the world community and simultaneously actualize the need for its change, in a welfare state.

However, so far this discontent has been only growing (although it becomes more and more obvious), while the results of activities of global forces in the context of the world historical process are quite real and tangible: threat of a world war – in politics, destruction of the “collective identity” of spiritual and moral values – in culture, simple decline of population – in demography, dominance of world capital (in private, transnational corporations and cryptocurrencies) – in the economy, purposeful substitution of fundamental, deep humanitarian knowledge for practical skills to handle technological innovations and empirical databases – in science; weaning people on the ability to think and replacing it with a practical ability to find information in an infinite variety of information sources – in education.

Russia is one of the few countries that can (and, in our opinion, must) really resist all these processes. It is not just its internal national but global and historical significance. However, so far, this ideological confrontation is limited to the president’s patriotic rhetoric and his conceptual appeals to the ruling elites, to the “collective West”. While the practical mechanisms and tools of public administration are in the hands of elite clans and groups that share the basic principles of liberal ideology, it is extremely difficult to count on any progress in the area of a welfare state. On the contrary, we will observe the next achievements of the global ruling elites in the implementation of their historical goals and the ever deeper rooting of the liberal-capitalist ideology in society.

It is necessary to understand a simple thing: if the planting of liberal ideology is not a natural, but an artificial, anthropological process, purposefully carried out by certain forces that

“The category of issues that need to be carefully understood and reflected in ideological models includes, among other things, the problems of statehood, sovereignty, and interdependence. But the main thing now is the knowledge of the problems of subjectivity. Ideologies are created by subjects who can realize, design, and implement a possible and desired future. It is difficult to do this without a clear understanding of vital interests, military-strategic, economic, social, humanitarian, without a clear commitment to ideals, without preserving the shrines of society, without a steady rise in the will to live» ³⁷ .

see benefits in this, then the alternative to it should be a “mirror” one – active, large-scale, complex and, first, ideological. If, of course, the state really has a need for this alternative, and it is not just a declaration to retain power.

“It is the weakness of the state that actually hinders socio-economic development... The main thing is not economic growth and direct democracy, but the satisfaction of the interests of all social groups and the achievement of social justice... Market competition always generates an increase in inequality. The only force that can resist this is the state, which consciously creates mechanisms to reduce the level of inequality, primarily a system of progressive taxation.

More importantly, the state can and should maintain a higher status of the values of serving its country, its people, the state, science, and culture than the value and meaning of personal enrichment... A desire for personal enrichment should not be the main goal for a person.

There are enough people in Russia for whom transpersonal goals and meanings are important – aspirations for the well-being of their country, general well-being, and justice. The state should create conditions that contribute to the formation of these goals and meanings among citizens” ³⁸ .