What are modern Russians striving for?

Vladimir Magun, Head of the Laboratory for Comparative Studies of Mass Consciousness, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Head of the Personality Research Sector of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “There is no altruism among our basic values”

“One of the common stereotypes is that we, Russians, are a highly spiritual nation, we have sobornost, collectivism, in general, the best people on earth live in Russia. We have a special path, we cannot be measured by a “common yardstick”, so you should not even try to compare us with other countries. But, despite the fact that we have the Bolshoi Theater, Dostoevsky, oil and rockets, in short, despite our uniqueness, Russia in its development still obeys the same cultural, economic, social and political patterns as all other countries. .

We conducted a large-scale international study of core values ​​in 29 European countries, including Russia. Basic values ​​are generalized experiences, people’s ideas about what is important in life.

As the study showed, Russians, in comparison with other Europeans, clearly gravitate toward security, conformism, and adherence to traditions. In addition, our desire for personal success and material prosperity is striking. It turned out that we are not highly spiritual at all – among our basic values ​​there is not even a trace of altruism. We do not care about others and nature, in the first place – personal well-being. On the one hand, this is our specificity, on the other hand, our commonality with other European countries, primarily the former states of the socialist camp. The countries of the Mediterranean are not so far away from us in terms of basic values.

The greatest value distance separates us from Western and Northern Europe. There, the population demonstrates both a much greater concern for people and nature, and a much greater openness to change and initiative. Moreover, there is a clear connection: the higher the GDP per capita in the state (that is, the richer people are), the more citizens prefer caring for others and nature to self-affirmation, the more often they choose altruism.”

Maxim Rudnev, Senior Researcher, Laboratory for Comparative Studies of Mass Consciousness, National Research University Higher School of Economics: “We are moving towards self-assertion and selfishness”

“One of the interesting discoveries made thanks to surveys in 29 European countries is that all Europeans, including Russians, can be conditionally divided into five types in accordance with their basic values. In our country, two value types are most often encountered.

The first is the so-called socially oriented conservatives, who live by the principle: the state feeds me, and in return I demonstrate my loyalty to it. As a rule, these are elderly and poorly educated people living on pensions and benefits, it is easier for them to integrate into the existing reality than to change something.

Another value type – the opposite of the first – are pronounced individualists who combine openness to change and a willingness to act and assert themselves. Representatives of this type are younger, educated and more inclined to take risks. Some of them are almost asocial, do not respect the laws (roughly speaking, “a bandit in a jeep”), some, on the contrary, are law-abiding, they do not give a damn about others and nature (say, conscientious entrepreneurs belong to it).

Interestingly, core values ​​can change, albeit slowly. Over the past six years, Russia, like other post-communist countries, has shifted towards the values ​​of self-affirmation and selfishness (“man is a wolf to man”), while in Western countries the movement is going in the opposite direction – the values ​​of caring for others and nature, tolerance, altruism.”

Alexander Auzan, Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov: “We can influence values ​​in order to change life for the better”

“Still, what affects what: the level of well-being on our basic values, or vice versa? Are Scandinavians altruistic because they are economically successful, or are they economically successful because of their altruism? I would like to believe that as well-being grows, people become smarter, kinder and more democratic, but as an economist I say: this is not true. Our core values ​​affect the economy much more than is commonly believed.

Is it possible to influence the basic values ​​in order to change life for the better? I think yes. For example, one of the reasons why we believe that we cannot influence the authorities in any way is that the population pays a huge amount of indirect taxes. We think we are paying 13%, when in fact we are giving the government 48% of our real income. When we asked the question in the study, what are you willing to pay taxes for in the first place, in the first place were health care, pensions and disability benefits, kindergartens and schools, and not at all the army and weapons. In order to understand that the people are the customer of the state, each of us must have the opportunity to vote with the ruble for this or that law, and this is possible only if taxes are direct, and not indirect.”