Trajectories of development of post-soviet identities: approaches, models, trends

The problems of the post-Soviet space remain an extremely controversial topic with a high degree of uncertainty of the subject field. However, studies of post-Soviet identity are more conceptualized, and the relevance of the topic in theoretical and practical terms is reflected in a large array of studies. The analysis of this array consists in searching for common logic and differences in the development of identity processes in certain groups of post-Soviet countries. By analyzing the content elements of memory policy and symbolic policy, as well as their structural relationships, it is possible to define models of post-Soviet identity and draw conclusions about their further features. Basing on the analysis of Russian and English-language literature the interpretive models of post-Soviet identities are to be constructed. Visualizing the key messages of the symbolic and memory policy of the post-Soviet countries (tag clouds), as well as analyzing of the expert survey (N 12), the authors highlight the deepening of trends that have developed over three decades of post-Soviet history as well as the regionalization of post-Soviet identities grouped around several models: the model of “national-civilizational community”; “neo-Soviet” model; “geopolitical” or “antiImperial” identity; the model of finding a balance between state, ethnic and religious identities; transitional “Caspian” identities; ethno-cultural model. The survey on the post-Soviet identities shows the ongoing process of distancing the societies from the former USSR basing on the new forms of perception of social and political phenomena. 

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