Civic Identity Sustainability Risks in the Context of Sociocultural Transformations of the Contemporary Russian Society

The article studies major symbolic concepts that constitute substantial content of the all-Russian civic identity analyzes distinct aspects of state identity policy and sustainability factors of civic identity in contemporary Russian society. The civic identity was pursued as the type of social identity that defines the goal setting of political process participants. The utilization of the concepts of myth-symbol complex and ethno-symbolism was instrumental in defining of the system-forming symbols and myths of the all-Russian civic identity, even as in designating the importance of maintaining their relevance under the conditions of competing nature of symbolic politics. The author outlines that the core of the all-Russian civic identity is based on the Soviet-era symbolic space, in which the symbol of the Victory in the Great Patriotic war plays the system-forming role. The implementation of state policy in the sphere of identity also mainly resembles the Soviet model. Meanwhile, sociocultural transformations of the Russian society which unfold in the field of demographic changes connected with soaring of the percentage of citizens who do not regard soviet symbolic space as the consolidator of civic identity, together with actualization of ethnic identities, could potentially reduce the efficacy of the present all-Russian civic identity configuration. As a potential risk-evading measure the author suggested using the existing concept of “state-forming ethnie” as the perspective symbolic foundation for civic identity