Conventional ideas about the features of the «mysterious Russian soul» are extremely stable. Many still consider catholicity (the predominance of collective values over individual ones) as an inalienable feature of the Russian character.
However, a large-scale study of the life values of Russians, conducted by the Institute for Comparative Social Research (CESSI) as part of a pan-European sociological project, refutes this point of view*. “We studied the values of Europeans that characterize their need for self-affirmation or, on the contrary, their readiness to go beyond their own “I,” says Vladimir Magun, head of the Personality Research Sector at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “And it turned out that, contrary to all stereotypes, Russians not only do not demonstrate a tendency towards collectivism and altruism, but, on the contrary, they strive for power, wealth, individual success and social recognition much more than other Europeans.” In other words, we should reconsider our ideas about traditionally Russian values of life and recognize that today we differ from other Europeans by a too low rather than too high propensity for solidarity with others.
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