The article analyzes the features of mass political consciousness and their influence on shaping of mass politics. The mass political consciousness is interpreted as one of the key factors determining the characteristics of political reality. The authors develop a concept of dualism in order to describe mass political consciousness of Russian people - a combination of traditional (archaic) and modern norms, values, and attitudes which has been reproducing for centuries. It is demonstrated that the dualistic political consciousness serves as a basis for an increasing depolitization of masses, but also has a potential to produce destructive politics of the masses. Mass involvement in politics of citizens is suggested to overcome the dualism of mass political consciousness.

The article suggests a concept of public consciousness structure as a methodology approach and a congruent classification of research methods for studying mass political consciousness. The approach separates different levels of public consciousness - the one of surface assessments and attitudes and the other of deep values orientations. The study of the values allows to go beyond monitoring short-term fluctuations in public sentiments. It helps to reveal contradictions and value gaps in the public consciousness, to diagnose it critical moments and to determine trends of its changes.

The article presents a look at the elections under the proportional system as a mass survey: inter-party debates form political cleavages which get reflected in the mass political consciousness and influence electoral cleavage structure. Factor analysis reveals three cleavages in the political space of post-Soviet Russia: socioeconomic, authoritarian-democratic and systemic. Their hierarchy changed in course of time. In 1995-2001, the socioeconomic cleavage was the first one, the systemic - the second, the authoritarian-democratic - the third. In 2016, the systemic became the first, the authoritarian-democratic - the second, the socioeconomic - the third. The strong correlation between political and electoral cleavages was detected in all Duma elections, except of the 1999-election. Also close links between electoral cleavages and social stratification factors (first of all the level of urbanization), as well as the distorting impact of so called ‘administrative resource’ on connection between political and electoral cleavages were found. It is noted that the authoritarian-democratic cleavage, which takes the second or third place in the political space, has been in strong correlation with the first electoral cleavage since 2003. This electoral cleavage (‘authorities vs public’) can be considered as the main characteristic of the mass political consciousness in today’s Russia and appears both at the federal and regional levels. On contrary, the socioeconomic cleavage makes itself felt mainly at the federal level. The systemic cleavage which dominates now in the political space influences election results only indirectly, actually it merges with the socioeconomic one.

The article presents a look at the elections under the proportional system as a mass survey: inter-party debates form political cleavages which get reflected in the mass political consciousness and influence electoral cleavage structure. Factor analysis reveals three cleavages in the political space of post-Soviet Russia: socioeconomic, authoritarian-democratic and systemic. Their hierarchy changed in course of time. In 1995-2001, the socioeconomic cleavage was the first one, the systemic - the second, the authoritarian-democratic - the third. In 2016, the systemic became the first, the authoritarian-democratic - the second, the socioeconomic - the third. The strong correlation between political and electoral cleavages was detected in all Duma elections, except of the 1999-election. Also close links between electoral cleavages and social stratification factors (first of all the level of urbanization), as well as the distorting impact of so called ‘administrative resource’ on connection between political and electoral cleavages were found. It is noted that the authoritarian-democratic cleavage, which takes the second or third place in the political space, has been in strong correlation with the first electoral cleavage since 2003. This electoral cleavage (‘authorities vs public’) can be considered as the main characteristic of the mass political consciousness in today’s Russia and appears both at the federal and regional levels. On contrary, the socioeconomic cleavage makes itself felt mainly at the federal level. The systemic cleavage which dominates now in the political space influences election results only indirectly, actually it merges with the socioeconomic one.

The article analyzes the mythological component of images of the Past in the Russian mass consciousness. The authors point out three major trends: the tendency to mythologize the country's history in order to compensate the weakness of the collective image of the future; creating a positive discourse of the Soviet past, the perception of significant events and personalities of that period outside of the idea of communism, in the context of traditional Russian values; fragmentation of the political myth's space.

The article discusses topical problems of political consciousness of the Russian young people. The author evaluates the state of ideological, partisan and personal political identity, analyses some ideological values, the political orientation of the young people, the level of their political loyalty, their willingness to various forms of the political activism. Some of the materials present the nationwide survey «Monitoring of the development of youth associations in the Russian Federation», conducted by researchers of the St. Petersburg State University in December 2014 and November 2015. The analysis allows to distinguish different groups of Russian young people with different characteristics of the political consciousness.

The paper examines the political values of the Russian middle class and in particular, middle class support for democracy. The study demonstrates that middle class is not a homogeneous and cohesive body. Occupational, demographic and spatial divisions have weakened the solidarity of the middle class and questioned its role as a catalyst for democratic change. A crucial divide here is between those members of the middle class who depend on the state for their livelihood and those who work in the non-state sectors of the economy. In contrast to those scholars who see the Russian middle class as a bastion of democracy and a major source of opposition to the Putin regime, this analysis demonstrates that a majority of the members of the middle class support the regime and given the choice will opt for the status quo over the uncertainties of regime change and revolutionary upheavals.

The article describes positioning of the mass consciousness in the process of forming public policy. It describes the place and role of the mass consciousness in the process of public decision-making. The special emphasis is made on the channels and mechanisms of the mass consciousness' influence on the development of the political agenda. It shows the role of various elite layers in the perception of mass sentiments and it the translation of political needs of the population. It highlights the prospects and possibilities of strengthening the influence of mass representations for the purposes of public policy in modern Russia.

The article is aimed to research transformation of Russian parties' ideological strategies in the 2016 Duma election and an influence of the socio-political context on the ideological function of parties, their ability to produce new ideas and meanings. The paper presents results of content analysis of parties' election programs and of an expert survey. The content analysis is devoted to problem areas which were actual in the current pre-election discourse. The expert survey was used in order to analyze ideological strategies of parties, as well as methods and techniques of their work with the voter.

The article gives a detailed analysis of the political consulting in Russia, offers the author's periodization of its development. The peculiarities of each stage are presented through the prism of Russian political consultants’ influence on the political processes. The author also describes the main problems of the today's Russian political consulting market and analyzes how political consultants form and influence mass political consciousness.

The subject of the article is media manipulation in the sphere of the mass political consciousness. It is argued that the psychological mechanisms of media manipulation have not changed over the last 70 years, but communication channels have been transforming actively in recent years which helps to influence the target audience. The specifics of this process in Russia is described.

The article presents a comparative analysis of the political consciousness in societies of different regime types. The main finding is that the population of hybrid regimes is characterized by a higher level of authoritarian attitudes than in authoritarian ones. It implies that the evolution of social and political consciousness has not linear-progressive, but more complex trajectory. In addition, evidences were found that authoritarian institutions can block the spread of liberal values. Thus, the institutional learning theory proves its correctness not only in democratic, but also in non-democratic regimes.

The article analyzes political values and political attitudes of the Altai Republic's population. It shows their dynamics influence on the course and results of the elections. The authors argue that the residents give preference to regional political issues before federal ones and that conservative sentiments dominate in the region.

The article analyses social factors of electoral behavior at the municipal elections in Russia. On the basis of linear regression, it is stated that determinants of the electoral behavior are urbanization, the ethnic mobilization and the protest activity; there are no relationship between the electoral behavior and the economic development as well as a percent of doctors and teaching staff. The mass political consciousness on the municipal level appears as a complex phenomenon that includes both democratic and autocratic features.