Students’ attitude to the Russian nation-building: evaluating the status and social solidarity mechanism

The nation-building policy in Russia determined the focus of modern media attacks on Russian national and state identity. The youth is mainly subjected to these attacks, which highlights the necessity of studying how students, being at the cutting edge of society’s innovation, comprehend the goals and ideas of nation-building. Based on the empirical data collected via focus group interviews in Southern and North-Caucasus Federal Universities, the research examines the students’ interpretation of the ways of nation-building, the role of state in this process, and common values with certain integrating potential involved. The analysis of students’ opinions proves that they accept the need for the Russian nation to be built as well as the challenge to do that with poorly developed civil society institutions. At the same time, students deny a function of nation-building to the state.