The article is devoted to revealing the relationship between culture and the transformation of the Soviet person. It is argued that Soviet culture is defined not so much by national and linguistic characteristics, but rather by the uniqueness of social practices, values, norms, spiritual, ideological, and political attitudes that unite the people into a single social system. The article emphasizes the role and significance of Russian culture in shaping the mentality of the Soviet person. In this context, mentality is understood as a system of stable beliefs and behavioral patterns that continue to influence people’s consciousness and behavior even after the disappearance of the socio-political system that gave rise to it. The article reveals the basic foundations that determine the mentality of the Soviet people and the contradictions in their development. In our opinion, if the country’s subjects had a higher mentality and implemented it effectively, the radical transformations of the Gorbachev period and the subsequent ones could have been avoided.

This article examines the process of socio-political mobilization in Russia. Using empirical data, it analyzes institutional and protest types of socio-political mobilization in the context of the 2024–2025 regional election campaigns from the perspective of the effectiveness of political administration and prospects for the sustainable development of the state and society. The article’s empirical basis is comprised of electoral statistics from the results of the Unified Voting Day in September 2024 and 2025, as well as data from the all-Russian sociological monitoring “How Are You Living, Russia?” (May 2025) conducted by the Institute of Socio-Political Research of the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Conclusions are drawn regarding the weak articulation of political interests by voters in the regions and, consequently, low rates of political activity in the public sphere, as well as the transformation of protest activity into covert forms.

This article presents the nature and characteristics of Russian social mobilization for civil defense, shaped by military-social relations during the Soviet Military District and Great Patriotic War. Taking into account the intersectoral sociological approach, the relevance of studying the social aspects of civil defense is substantiated. Based on various empirical sources, including citizen appeals, a sociological analysis of civil defense issues as one of the basic areas of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations was carried out. The specifics of historical and modern forms and methods of working with the population in the liberated new territories, as well as in the frontline regions, are reflected.

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the transformation of the Russian state in the context of rapid digitalization. It introduces and substantiates the concept of “Meta-Russia” – a specific digital space where national interests are realized and a new virtual statehood is formed. The paper examines five fundamentally new threats challenging traditional state monopolies. These include the global nature of networks, the devaluation of legislative regulation in favor of software code, the loss of the “monopoly on secrecy”, the emergence of isolated “digital ghettos”, and the growing influence of “digital barons”. It examines how these phenomena are redefining institutions of power, the social contract, and national sovereignty, creating new risks for social stability and security. It is argued that the answer to these challenges lies in a transition to a hybrid control model based on the symbiosis of state institutions and technological platforms. Maintaining national sovereignty requires not only technological solutions but also a thorough social mapping of the virtual environment and the updating of the social contract.

The article analyzes generational rotations within the Russian political elite from 1998 to 2024. Based on biographical data from 2,605 individuals, the study demonstrates that by 2024, generations socialized after Perestroika have become dominant within the establishment. This process is reshaping the elite’s generational identity. However, key positions are still retained by more experienced politicians. Consequently, we do not currently observe significant shifts in political course attributable to these generational rotations.

The article substantiates the relevance of the public demand for a fair structure of Russian society. The article analyzes Russians’ ideas about justice in various spheres of public life. The existing barriers affecting the perception of modern Russian society as fair are described. In theoretical and methodological terms, in the process of describing the essential criteria on the basis of which we can talk about the fairness of modern social structures and institutions, the author relies on the concept of functional capabilities of A. Sen and M. Nusbaum, as well as on the provisions of the theory of justice by J. Rawls. The paper highlights the significant criteria of a fair life and assesses these criteria in the public consciousness of Russians.

This article analyzes self-medication practices common in Russian society, which can be both harmful and beneficial to an individual’s health. Particular attention is paid to the nature and principles of responsible self-medication (RSM). Based on available data from nationwide studies, the article examines the dynamics of self-medication over the past few years, as well as the main reasons and strategies for choosing self-medication tactics in Russians. The complexity of analyzing the phenomenon of self-medication is due to its multifaceted nature, as well as the presence of diverse healthcare interventions (prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, palliative care) and self-care measures (medications, devices and accessories, etc.). The broad interpretation of responsible self-medication contained in international norms and recommendations complicates its study and does not allow for a characterization of the prevalence and dynamics. The article identifies the main self-medication practices of Russians and demonstrates that among Russian citizens who practice self-medication, a relatively high proportion adhere to the principles of responsible self-medication. However, even among these individuals, only partial adherence to its core principles is observed. The author emphasizes that self-medication is not only voluntary but also forced: it is necessary to identify and eliminate the causes of forced choice and to identify the factors that determine it. One of the important tasks remains the development of a methodological basis for a program to improve the health literacy of Russians, as well as the creation of conditions for citizens to practice responsible self-medication.

The study presents the results of the research in university teachers and the university staff labor motivation and attitude to work. F. Herzberg’s two-factor model was used to analyze labor motivation.

For all employees, remuneration is in the first place in terms of importance. This is a socio-hygienic factor, the primary importance of which indicates tension in terms of basic needs and the fact that the majority of respondents are not satisfied with its size and accrual rules. 62,5% of the teaching staff and 74,3% of the administrators indicated the need for an increase in wages.

Younger employees are significantly more dissatisfied with the salary level and work organization than the older generation. The teachers of the oldest age group mostly speak about their complete satisfaction with the university and all the motivation factors, because they have already realized their professional ambitions.

Interesting and creative work is the second most important thing for the teaching staff, and the atmosphere and team are the second most important for the administrative staff. Satisfaction with professional work is higher among the teaching staff than among the administrative staff. The same is established for satisfaction with the university as a place of work. In general, teachers feel in their place more than administrators do.

The article examines the level of job satisfaction among Russian IT-workers in comparison with other workers. Based on data from the 2025 WCIOM’s national survey, the authors analyze the impact of workers’ professional skills on their career and salary expectations. A typical IT-specialist is characterized as a highly educated, well-paid, and constantly developing employee who believes in the fairness of their compensation. The key drivers of work satisfaction among Russian IT-workers have been identified, such as material rewards, a fair and transparent connection between competence and pay, professional self-realization, as well as potential sources of dissatisfaction, including a crisis of meaning in work, a learning race and cognitive overload, and inflated expectations of career prospects. The article concludes that it is necessary to create an environment that allows employees to realize their potential without the risk of burnout.

The methodological framework of the study is based on traditional approaches to measuring social well-being and living standards, including works by domestic sociologists. The empirical base is the results of questionnaire surveys of the population of the Samara region from 2015 to 2024. The sample is representative of the region and includes 2,600 respondents from various types of settlements. Over the analyzed period, the respondents’ standard of living indicators demonstrate contradictory dynamics: when the family’s financial situation changes for the worse, the family’s income consumption potential is assessed better than in the previous year, which may be associated with a revision of ideas about the “necessary” minimum. Social well-being, measured through evaluations of past changes and current circumstances, has deteriorated. However, expectations for the future have become slightly more optimistic. An analysis of the dynamics of the measured indicators revealed a changing nature of the relationship between assessments of changes that have occurred and the current situation in the lives of respondents with their perception of future life changes during periods of crisis.

The article operationalizes the concepts of “subjectivity” and “social status” and shows the differentiation of the youth group. The author analyzes the manifestations of the subjectivity of students in various fields: education (secondary vocational and higher education) and youth organizations of various orientations; the forms of participation and non-participation of the state in the formation of subjectivity, and the consequences of the latter fact. The article also shows changes in the prestige of higher and secondary education based on research by Russian sociologists. The educational status of young people in the 1970s has also undergone changes. The article provides motivation for young people to join pro-social, asocial, and antisocial youth organizations. When analyzing the youth of this period, it is important to consider the aspirations, interests, and orientations of this group, as well as the existing youth organizations, both formal and informal, and self-organized groups and youth movements. It is also important to examine how these organizations met the needs of the state.

The article presents a comparative analysis of the results of three studies conducted in 2015, 2020 and 2025 on the perception of the Great Patriotic War among children and adolescents. The findings reveal the evolving role of schools and children’s libraries in engaging young generations with the topic through events, literature, and innovative formats of educational work.

The study shows that books and school textbooks remain the primary sources of information about the war for children, maintaining their leading position over the past decade. At the same time, films and TV series – including screen adaptations of Soviet war literature – continue to play a significant role in shaping historical consciousness.

Notably, the Internet has become an increasingly important information source over the ten-year period, while television’s influence has declined substantially. Despite the widespread use of the Internet, this source of information has not replaced traditional sources (printed books and educational literature), but has helped to promote high-quality and time-tested texts through new formats of access to literature (online services and platforms for reading books, specialized resources about the Great Patriotic War created by librarians, teachers, museums, etc.).

The article analyzes the “social contract” in the 1930s between the state and the engineering and technical intelligentsia, whose numbers were insufficient to achieve the goals of industrialization. This period was caused by the Soviet state’s dual strategy: on the one hand, the mass training of its own personnel, and on the other, the temporary use of “old” engineers. The authors also highlight another group of engineers – foreign specialists, without whom the government would not have been able to cope with the enormous challenges of industrialization. Special attention is paid to the change in the slogan from “Technology solves everything” to “People solve everything”, which marks the transition from dependence on external technologies to the creation of an internal technocratic elite. As a result, a special socio-professional group of Soviet engineers was formed, with voluntary-forced isolation from the international professional community and their own ideological loyalty.