Historical memory as a political category in modern Russia

The paper deals with the historical memory of Russian society and the impact of a political elite on the development of public historical memory. The political elites of different states in different historical periods have always sought to control and transform the historical memory of their people as an essential component of mass political consciousness to prevent the emergence of potentially dangerous ideological concepts that can start protest self-organization processes of society on a network basis. The generation of a national idea is of particular relevance to Russia in its current political confrontation with competing actors in the international system and the emerging domestic social conflict due to a decline in living standards and uneven national income distribution among segments of society. The author suggests generating the national idea of modern Russia around three interconnected ideological concepts: Eurasianism, patriotism, and traditionalism.