The mentality of the Russian population in the context of regional community modernization

The article emphasizes the issues of studying the Russian mentality, its transformation in terms of socio-economic transformations. The choice of the research area stems from the fact that it is necessary to intensify modernization processes in the regional community with an important role of socio-cultural factors, in particular, the population's mentality. The driving force of population's modernization is a human, namely, individual groups of people prone to change and having characteristics contributing to the promotion of new ideas. In this regard, the purpose of the present paper is to study the Russian mentality and its relations with the modernization of the regional community. Special attention is paid to identifying intergenerational differences resulting from the transformations of mental structures, the “core” of which are values. The informational base of the research includes data of sociological survey conducted in 2016 by Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of RAS in the Northwestern Federal district. Analysis has showed that traditional features of the Russian mentality (focus on making a happy and friendly family, health care, kindness, generosity, simplicity, etc.) are preserved at the intergenerational level. The transformation processes of the mental space have had a major impact on the younger generation. Devaluation of labor values is observed among the youth, public interests are replaced with personal ones, which is expressed in contradictory views. In order to form the axiological image of a Russian person, the authors applied mathematical tools such as factor and cluster analysis. The first stage revealed four factors (“willingness to live on ideals, feelings”, “selfishness”, “legal nihilism”, “inertness”) reflecting the value grounds of the Russians' attitude to life. The second phase helped distinguish population groups (“anarchist individualists”, “limited altruists”, “reasonable egotists”), combining certain mental characteristics. It has been determined that each of the mentioned categories is ready for modernization change to a different extent. The authors come to a conclusion about the necessity of further in-depth study of mental barriers hampering the processes of regional community modernization.