The Imperial Consciousness of Russian Society as the Ideological Basis for Domestic Conservative Discourse

The article is devoted to the analysis of the imperial consciousness of Russian society, which was part of the public consciousness and political culture of society, which contained ideas about the nature, form and mission of their own state, its place
and role in the world and world history. Its ideological foundations are the ideological concepts that dominate in the enlightened part of society, foreign policy doctrines that substantiate imperial policy, religious and ethical values, as well as ideas about “truth” and a fair order embodied in the state. The article discusses the basic ideas about the concept of "empire", its characteristic features and features. It is emphasized that the formation of imperial statehood is associated not only with the appearance of external signs of imperial statehood, but is also conditioned by institutional and mental modernization, one of the most important results of which is the emergence of imperial discourse, which includes the key mental matrices of self-presentation and self-identifi cation, which were refl ected in the corresponding ideas, political and historical narratives. The author comes to the conclusion that the Russian imperial consciousness, which had developed by the beginning of the 19th century, could become a solid basis for the formation of the Russian national consciousness, the bearer of which would be a single state nation, united, fi rst of all, not by ethnic or confessional homogeneity, adherence to the existing political system, serving which was the highest state value. However, the achievement of this goal was directly related to the transformation of the titular nation, which was the basis of Russian statehood, into a truly imperial nation, which provided for broad social transformations, the results of which would make it possible to involve the masses
in conscious public service, turning them into full-fledged citizens. This perspective came into confl ict with the usual estate-imperial model of state administration, implemented by the imperial authorities for a long time. The thesis is substantiated that the conservative vision of the problems and prospects for the development of Russian imperial statehood largely corresponded to the main features of the imperial consciousness of Russian society, intellectually shaping it and transforming it into a specifi c political program.