Perception of the future by new citizens of Russia: possibilities of a political-psychological approach in the study of instruments for the formation of civil identity

The article presents the results of a series of studies conducted in 2023– 2024 in the new subjects of the Russian Federation (DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, as well as in the Republic of Crimea) on the state of civic identity of young people in the new subjects of the Russian Federation and their ideas about the future.

The article presents conceptual foundations for studying ideas about the future, including the author’s interpretation of the image of the future as a component of the subjective space of politics, which influences the organizational forms of political institutions and power relations, and includes constant (structure, levels, trajectories, status/subjectivity of the bearer of ideas about the future) and variable parameters (content of the structure, priority of levels, priority of trajectories, level of subjectivity of the bearer of ideas about the future), the content of which is determined by a combination of internal and external factors.

The possibilities of the political-psychological approach as a theoretical framework for analyzing the subjective space of politics are shown, in particular: the image of the future, its substantive and emotional components, subjectivity (locus of control), value and behavioral attitudes of the individual, civic identity.

Based on the understanding of empirical data, the article shows that ideas about the future are part of the life space of young people and describes the factors that determine the short-term or long-term planning of the future. The emotional component of the image of the future of the youth of the new regions is characterized, its contradiction and a set of factors that determine the spectrum of positive and negative emotions regarding the future are shown. The connection between the locus of control, readiness to take responsibility with the emotional coloring of ideas about the future is revealed.

The value component of the image of the future of the youth of the new territories is characterized, the most and least significant values for the youth of the new regions are identified.

Behavioral attitudes in ideas about the present and the future of youth in the new regions are described.

Five types of civic identity of the youth of the new subjects of the Russian Federation are identified, correlated with ideas about their country (Russian, hybrid, Donbass, escapist and Ukrainian) and their representation (according to the results of quantitative studies) among the youth of the new territories is determined; the specificity of psychological identification mechanisms for each type of civic identity is shown.

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