About the socio-cultural foundations of the Russia's civil identity

The article summarizes the results of sociological surveys of all-Russian and ethnic identity. The author concludes that in conditions of relative weakness of civil structures and political culture of participation, all-Russian identity is based on a wide range of socio-cultural sources. Ethnic identity and culture of trust play an important role among them. All-Russian and ethnic identities (mainly ethnic identity of Russians as the majority of the country) mutually support and nourish each other. Emotional involvement and the inspiring impulse of the state-civil Russian identity are provided and supported by the participation of feelings, perceptions, motivations that are part of the ethnic (ethnocultural) identity complex. Attitudes of interethnic tolerance act as a connecting link between the processes of strengthening ethnic identity and the formation of state-civil identity. Generalized trust (to people in general) and to people you know (to neighbors, colleagues, friends), as well as the skills of interethnic tolerance, can make a great contribution to the formation of national civil unity. These components form a bridging social capital (according to R. Putnam), aimed at involving all citizens of the country into a single field of civil integration. An important conclusion of the research is that generalized trust in all study regions favors the formation of an all-Russian identity and interethnic tolerance. The sociocultural basis of all-Russian identity must be strengthened by political categories of self-determination, including legal equality and respect for the law, which gain weight along with the development of civil society and stable traditions of political participation.