Patriotism as a value in the globalizing world: national and international ‘measurements’

The article considers patriotism as one of the most difficult social concepts to be ‘measured’ for it has different interpretations and ‘dimensions’ that are discursive rather than determined by objective factors. First, the author outlines the results of the Russian opinion polls in the 2010s, 2000s and 1990s, which indicate changes in the interpretations of patriotism by the shares of the population willing to identify themselves as patriots. The figures stabilized in the mid2000s, which was also determined by the state’s efforts to use the idea of patriotism to support the legitimacy of state bodies and national solidarity under the intensifying globalization. Since 2001, the state implements programs of patriotic education that aim to revive patriotism as an idea of individual spiritual heritage and the basis of social and political stability in the country. The author considers the patriotic mood of the Russian students based on the results of surveys conducted in 2011 and 2016 on the sample of Moscow students. The data present both national and international ‘dimensions’ of patriotism. The former is constituted by estimates of one’s country position in the world, its key problems and contradictions, objects of pride, level of social trust, etc. The international dimension of the patriotic mood is constituted primarily by geopolitical awareness, i.e. the images of neighboring countries.

patriotism, empirical indicators of patriotic mood, national and international ‘dimensions’, Russian student youth, survey