In pursuit of the bright future: Russia's socialist and post-socialist experience in everyday language as a subject of the conceptual analysis

Abstract

Distinguishing between the things existent and the due humanity focused its efforts on achieving a certain perfect state. The world history is full of examples of building a "kingdom of God" on Earth. The Russia's history could also be interpreted as an endless search for the town of Kitezh (fairy-tale town of happiness) and Russia's place in the system of international relationships; the country is in a state of permanent denial of imperfect present for the sake of bright future. The authors focused on the conceptual analysis of the Russia's socialist and post-socialist practices expressed in the language of everyday life. Language is an indicator of changes in the world of human life, and the society in general. The study uses Soviet and post-Soviet everyday life's language expressions that reflect the key aspects of social development - ensuring material and moral well-being of citizens, relationships between domination and subordination, achieving harmony of the individual and the collective, respect for the fairness in the geopolitical space. Based on those expressions, the authors of the research demonstrate the progress in the views of the Russians about the past, the existing, and the due of their social world order. Thus, the conceptual approach makes it possible to clarify not only the destiny of Soviet Russia and the situation in post-Soviet Russia today, but also to make reasonable predictions about the future of the country.