The national idea in Russia and its conceptual substitutions: history and modernity

The relevance of the research lies in the need to conceptualize national consciousness and determine a viable strategy for the development of Russia in the face of increasing internal and external challenges. The paper aims at a comparative analysis and comprehension of the conceptual groundwork of the original domestic thought and Western technocratic theories that perform the function of replacing the national idea in the representation of power structures. The methodological one-sidedness of modernization and post-industrial/digital society doctrines as ideological projects of modernity substantiation based on a simplified one-line ontological model, their insufficient adequacy to the historical experience of Russia is shown. The issues of similarity of the political and axiological realities of modern Russia and the Russian Empire of the post-reform period, when the negative version of the liberal-conservative synthesis led the country to the catastrophe of 1917, are touched upon. Nevertheless, it is noted that the Soviet project acquired the features of a national idea, performing integrative-oriented tasks for a certain period of time. The conclusion is substantiated that the concepts of modernization and digitalization may become part of the strategic development program exclusively in the context of the state of justice, based on the actualization and integration of the Russian idea philosophy heritage and the mechanisms of the social sphere regulation of the Soviet historical period.