“What does it mean to be Russian?”: Interpretation of students’ essays (2020–2024)

The issue of content and change of Russian identity remains to be actual as Russian nation continues its formation since 1991. This article continues the investigation transformation of the semantic content of «Russianness» and incorporates new sources from 2020–2024. The data consists of 166 essays written by students from a regional university on the topic «What does it mean to be Russian?». The analysis relies on a constructivist approach and the methodology of discursive practices. Big data analysis methods (Python, Pymorphy2) with processing by the large language model Grok 3 Mini were used for analysing data. The work aims to find main identity markers and their dynamics in 2020–2024.

The analysis revealed the main markers mentioned in essays: culture (72,29% of texts), language (69,88%), positive personal characteristics (50.6%), history (38,55%), and the «Russian soul» (31,33%). It was revealed that the essays’ authors preferred flexible markers that allow to expand «Russian World» in opposite to rigid markers: language, appearance, ethnicity, geography. The growing importance of culture reflected in defining the broadly interpreted «Russian soul» and separating

«true» from «non-true» Russians. The dynamics of characteristics ascribed to Russian, judgments in regard to other nations, and the emotional exposure in the essays indicated a strengthening of consolidation sentiments in the context of confronting external hostile influence (generalized «external enemies» and the West). Thus, by 2024, characteristics like «resilient», «patriotic / solidary» had significantly strengthened, while emotionally, feelings of «pride» has grown with almost disappearance of such feelings as «shame/embarrassment» and «calmness/comfort». The essays revealed predominant references to V.V. Putin and his quotes as well to Russian classics: F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.S. Pushkin, which showed increasing influence of official meta-discourses after 2022. Overall, the analysis results proved aligned with public opinion polls but revealed a complex attitude towards the issue of patriotism and its role in «Russianness». The conducted study could add to methodology of studying Russian identity among youth by new methods of data analysis of local sources.

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