Discussion
This study explores how the Russian state constructs and reproduces national identity through the educational programme
“Conversations about Important Things” (
Razgovory o vazhnom), introduced in schools in 2022. The programme combines moral education, patriotic upbringing, and symbolic rituals such as the weekly flag-raising ceremony and singing of the national anthem. These practices are intended to foster a sense of national unity and loyalty to the state, to the current power among students, while also normalising the presence of state ideology in everyday school life. This programme is not an academic discipline and does not represent a separate field of knowledge. Over three full academic years, during which it was taught in Russian schools, 105 lessons were held on various topics. They touch upon numerous aspects of national identity and Russia in general. These lessons generally reflect policy documents, such as the presidential decree on traditional values, etc.
The CIT syllabi state that teachers should, among other things, “help students form their Russian identity.” This raises the question of how this identity is conceptualised in the official vision of the state and reflected in the course’s design. Drawing on a content-analytical approach, the study examines how the political regime in Russia and the Ministry of Enlightment articulate the Russian identity based on ideal image of a “good citizen” — loyal, patriotic, and morally upright. The analysis focuses on the key value of grazhdanstvennost’ (civic-mindedness) and on how the state discourse frames patriotism as collective duty, loyalty, and reverence for national symbols, leaving limited space for critical reflection or pluralistic interpretations.
Various sociological theories can explain the features of CIT and the ideas it promotes. For instance, Anderson’s imagined communities based on narratives, rituals and symbols. In line with Althusser’s concept of the school as an ideological state apparatus, CIT serves to reproduce the regime’s political worldview by naturalising it within everyday school routines. Following Bourdieu’s notion of symbolic power, the program can be viewed as a mechanism for reproducing state-defined norms and forming civic habitus.
The study argues that “Conversations about Important Things” programme operates as a ritualised practice of ideological reproduction that merges emotional attachment to the nation, national pride with moral instruction. By embedding ideological narratives into school routines and moral vocabulary, the program plays a central role in shaping a monolithic vision of Russian identity and redefining civic identity as loyalty to the state rather than participation in the public sphere.
