UDC

140.8+165.19

Authors

Galina S. Devnina
Saratov State University;
ul. 6-ya Dachnaya, Levaya storona 6B, Saratov, 410033, Russian Federation;
e-mail: devnina@mail.ru

Abstract

A country’s internal political crisis reflects the situation in the public life – socioeconomic, ideological, and cultural – and vividly illustrates the possibilities and mechanisms of state response and regulation. Today, one of the latest trends in the political life of Eurasian countries in times of crisis is the manipulation of public opinion and the formation in the society of a particular perception of political and economic events, including the formation of protest and revolutionary sentiments leading to radical developments up to the change of political elite and political regime. One of the key roles in public perception of reality and shaping of public opinion is played by social myths, which are not only a product of social memory and social thinking, but also an effective mechanism of ideological influence. Taking major political crises of modern Russian history (1990 – present day) as an example, the article studies the role of social myth-making during the emergence, development and resolution of political crises. The author considered historical events by projecting them onto the present-day life, used available data from sociological surveys and performed a comparative analysis of several political crises that had occurred within the same area. The purpose of this study was to determine the status of social myth in the political life of state and society. Recognizing the existence of social myth in political life and its influence on socialization and politicization of a person, as well as clearly defining the role of social myth, we can speak of social myth-making as a separate line of state regulation, thus transferring it from the sphere of urban legends to the cultural scene of society.

Keywords

contemporary history of Russia, political crisis, social myth, social myth-making, social mythologization, mythologeme

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