Safety as a value in Russian society: diachronic aspect

The article is devoted to the study of the concept “safety” as a value in the Russians’ individual and public linguistic consciousness. The authors present the results of the research, the purpose of which was to reveal the content of “safety” concept and related concepts in the linguistic consciousness of Russian culture-bearers in different socio-political situations. The method of “Semantic gestalt” (proposed by Yu.N. Karaulov) and free associative experiment were used as research methods. The experiment was carried out in three stages, during periods of various global world upheavals, namely: 1) 2012–2013, the spread of terrorist attacks, 2) 2020–2021, the coronavirus pandemic, 3) 2022–2023, the beginning of a special military operation in Ukraine. The results of the research make it possible to describe the internal meanings that lie behind the studied images of consciousness and to trace transformations in their content.