Our citizens believe that Russia is a developed and respected country – and that in itself is wonderful. After all, how people evaluate their own state, as relates to their home, depends very much in our lives. And we have already seen this in the history of Russia, especially in the newest.
A recent poll of Fund of public opinion focused on what to think of Russia, our citizens – and how, in their opinion, belong to our country in the world. And if only about our country abroad, respondents ask for more than 10 years, their assessment of the situation of Russia itself is interested only in 2012.
But this indicator is very important because it shows not how citizens assess the current situation (“what’s going on”), and in many ways demonstrates the level of our self-image of themselves as people.
Yes, that’s right – it froze in a good sense, self-confidence, our self esteem, our faith in our own strength. And what it shows?
63 percent consider Russia a developed and advanced country – against 27, are confident in reverse. And the trend is significant – six years was equally. And even with some advantage and confident of the backwardness of Russia – 45 to 43. But in early 2014 (before Crimea) those who believe that Russia is a developed country was 57 percent, and by the end of 2015, this figure rose to 74. Poll “Omnibus” was held on 13-14 January in 104 settlements of the Russian Federation among 1,500 respondents.
This is not the result of “stupefying influence of propaganda” or detachment from reality – because, for example, in response to the question of what poor or rich country, consider Russia, our people were divided in the ratio of 37 to 47, and two years ago those who were evaluated as “rich”, it was 64 percent. No, just people began to refer to their country without endless self-abasement.
This is a fundamentally important point because it is around “development” and belonging to advanced powers is spinning we have a whole public debate of the last 30 years. We and the country largely because of this destroyed the lamentations about the “retarded socialist system”, which we are losing competition with the “civilized countries”. A comparison with the West, with the “advanced countries” was almost the main tool of reformatting everything – from the social system and the economy to education and the army. And since comparison is inevitable for some reason was not in our favor, and reform followed the path of imitation, copy, or, at best, “creative repetition” of foreign models.
But gradually more and more people began to understand that the important own and not someone else’s experience that the development is different, and can be achieved in different ways, and indeed, that the Russian well, the German not suitable. We began to study our own experience to find my way – but compared to the other still remains. In itself, the comparison is natural, normal – even though the question is, how important is it for comparing.
We even in zero years it remained too significant – that is, we have not really understood yet, and what is now, in the post-Soviet era, “our”, and put someone else above him. Constructive and useful the comparison is generally useful only for someone who knows very well “their”, sees all of his strengths and weaknesses then he can consciously change something, to learn something. There is no sin in learning from others – our history gives us numerous examples of how we adopt the experience of others: for example, together with came to us by the Italian masters built the Kremlin.
But there are also examples of the opposite – when I came to us in the 16th century “teachers” panamapanama us Holy books and rituals, replacing baptism with deeperstill on troeperstie – indicating that so do “the Greeks themselves”. It cost us a split of the Church and the strongest shocks of the whole of Russia – and then it turned out that the “Greeks” at that time simply forgot how to cross originally, we were the keepers of ancient piety.
That is, to assess himself against the rest of the world is when you know your path and your options – then you have a coordinate system and there is no danger to go after that, you don’t need and losing something that is for you absolutely necessary.
The Chinese, for example, without much risk to absorb and shovel the experience of others and notions – because they have a very high degree of rootedness in their own civilization and be regarded as the most advanced and developed nation.
And we, especially in times of turmoil, you need to be very careful in comparing yourself and others – because it is in these moments our adversaries begin to use our national character for “lip service”. We explain that our government is retarded, the life of the poor, greedy of power, rules and laws are outdated – and the neighbors-here’s how it all works correctly! And we, because of our humility, tendency to self-criticism and soul-searching, our “world responsiveness”, sometimes we begin to succumb to the temptation to “renounce the old world” – that is, to abandon all acquired do back-breaking labor of the ancestors.
And monstrous in its original swing plan “the elimination of the old and backward Russia”, which a hundred years ago tried to implement the most cosmopolitan part of the Bolsheviks, only the most striking and terrible manifestation of this.
After all the restructuring we also wanted “to become civilized” – at least, this desire moved the visible part of not only elite but also civil society. So wanted that even was ready to pay for this renunciation of ourselves – that is, from its “Soviet”.
And when it turned out that the Soviet was a form of existence of Russian, many have come to their senses, realized that we have our own self, your unique features, not marked by any ideology, and things to compare Russia and the rest of the world. And polling data say not that we are conceited, and believe that “ahead of the rest” – no, they talk about self esteem, about the end of the period of self-deprecation, that we have become self-sufficient. And this is the best sign we gained the real power.
