Спрос на эпохи

Социологические исследования. 2021. № 3. С. 3–16.

Karacharovskiy V.

Based on the concept of subjectively perceived history, the citizens’ demand for historical types of social conditions that existed at different stages of Russian development in the Soviet and Post–soviet period (1950–2019) is estimated. We use a method that allows us to construct a continuous curve of “demand for eras” on the basis of a free choice of years in which the well-being of an individual and his reference group was maximized (minimized) due to certain set of goods (bads) inherent in these years. The limits of transformation of the demand curve for eras in connection with future changes in the relative weight of Soviet generations and Millennials in Russian society are shown. Changes within these limits do not qualitatively change its current form. It is shown that the growth of the social value of a modern period of history can be achieved on the basis of a set of goods identical to the ones of the era of “developed socialism”. The degree of polarization of historical memory is measured by period: the polarization is minimal in relation to the 1960–1970s, the 1990s (with a negative sign), and the first decade of the 2000s, but increases in relation to the second half of the 1980s and the second decade of the 2000s. Along with financial and economic difficulties, the latter period is characterized by a perceived lack of psychological integrity, but its potential is determined by the historical vote for it of the younger part of Millennials. It is statistically proved that individual differences in choosing the best era and the differentiation of views on the era of the 2000s are determined by belonging to a generation, income, level of education and family composition.

This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project No. 16-18-10270.

Keywords: historical memory, историческая память, историческое сознание, historical consciousness, социальные предпочтения, gross national happiness, social preferences, post-communist nostalgia, посткоммунистическая ностальгия, валовое национальное счастье