The article examines the social conditions in the territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the Zaporozhie and Kherson oblasts, in the context of the Special Military Operation (SMO) and the process of integration into the Russian Federation. The focus is on the transformation of public consciousness and the collective unconscious of the residents in these regions. The author relies on field research, political rhetoric analysis of regional leaders, and secondary analysis of similar studies by other researchers. The complex conditions of social and political transition are highlighted, along with the risks of emerging societal states such as borderline social reality, fragmented identity, and dependent subjectivity. The images and archetypes forming in Russia’s liberated territories are analyzed, with particular attention to the blurring boundary between war and everyday life phenomenon, which contributes to anxiety condition among the population. Archetypal structures - such as the image of the hero-defender, the suffering homeland, the motherland, and civilizational unity with Russia—play a crucial role in collective adaptation and regional subjectivity. It is stated that while all four regions share a set of common, foundational experiences and archetypes, they differ in the depth of their entrenchment and the ways how these archetypes are actualized. The conclusion is drawn on the necessity for cultural, educational, and psychological efforts that would be aimed at integrating the population and overcoming condition of traumatic uncertainty.
В. В. Комлева (2025) studied this question.