The special military operation reveals new features of civil society

Eight months have passed since the RF President announced the launch of a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine (February 24, 2022); thus, currently Russia is facing a global political situation that has become more turbulent. Difficulties on the front line, frequent terrorist attacks, military aid to the Kiev regime from NATO countries all this urged the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the RF Armed Forces to make tough but necessary decisions that could not but affect the majority of Russian society. The paper analyzes key events related to the special military operation, as well as the decisions promptly taken by the President in accordance with the requirements of the time and the situation on the front line. We focus on some of the President’s decisions, such as the announcement of partial military mobilization (September 21, 2022); amendments to the RF Criminal Code aimed to strengthen discipline in the army and society during martial law and wartime (September 24, 2022); accession of new territories to Russia - the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, the Kherson and Zaporozhye oblasts (October 5, 2022); large-scale precision missile strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, military communications and command posts (October 10, 2022); introduction of martial law in the new constituent entities of the Russian Federation and the establishment of special measures to ensure security of all regions of the Russian Federation (19 October 2022). We analyze public opinion trends and the results of the Single Voting Day (September 11, 2022), which are considered as indicators of public sentiment in the hard times that our country is facing. On the whole, our research has shown that the alarming political situation on the global arena, as well as the tough decisions adopted by the head of state in recent months, revealed new features in Russian civil society, provoked changes in the people’s internal awareness of the scale of threats to national security. This, in particular, was expressed in the following: many Russians are participating in the special military operation as volunteers; volunteer aid is increasing; in society, there is strong condemnation of those who left Russia after the start of the special operation; all the social strata are consolidating around the RF President; the above trends are observed in the dynamics of public opinion assessments. All these factors can play an important role in Russia’s crossing its internal Rubicon in the form of the reorientation of broad strata of Russian society, and above all its elite groups, from the Western development dogmas imposed during the 30th anniversary of the market transformation toward nationally oriented goals and values.