Problem of mentality transformation in late 20 - early 21 centuries

In this article the author substantiates the following preconditions for actualization of the Russian studies of mentality at the end of the 20th - the beginning of the 21st century: socioeconomic change in the society, contradictoriness of the social processes, the impact of globalization on both the social and the individual consciousness and the changing social role of religion. On the basis of the analysis of socioeconomic changes in Russia at the end of the 20th century the author comes to conclusion that the transformation of the Russian mentality is objectively preconditioned. A theoretical justification of the interrelation between the concepts ''the ethnic Russian mentality'', ''the Soviet mentality'' and ''the Russian mentality'' is given. The consideration of different approaches to the interrelation between the Russian and the Soviet mentality, which are present in the Russian social philosophy has become the foundation for the author's argumentation for her own point of view on the process of mentality transformation. The ability of mentality to change is presented as one of the major reasons to investigate it. The author takes notice of the two-layer structure of mentality, represented by its basic (foundational) and external (vital) blocks, where the second block is more prone to change. Thus, the main features of mentality are preserved in the transformation process. The importance of the introduction of the new type of economic relations, which produced a deep crisis in the Russian society due to its unpreparedness to such drastic changes, is revealed. The process of westernization is viewed as a negative factor for the mentality change, as it contributed to introduction of pseudo-values (hedonism, extreme individualism, nihilism), incommensurable with the world-view of the majority of the Russians and often not characteristic for the western society, into the Russian society. In consequence of the Russian society's outgrowth of the communal consciousness, the propaganda of individualism as the foundation for the new world outlook has led to the tremendous societal atomization and escalation of social tension. The author pays attention to the characteristic feature of the Russian mentality - its openness, the ability to accept new things, which in the period of social anomia aggravated its vulnerability. The author substantiates the great importance and necessity to study the youth mentality. The youth is characterized by its lability of consciousness, its world-view is in the process of formation, which takes place in quite contradictory social circumstances. For the aforementioned reasons the youth mentality is more prone to virtualization. Such socio-group forms of youth mentality as mentality of the urban and rural youth are specified. To investigate peculiarities of each of them is relevant from both theoretical and practical points of views.

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