The analytical report prepared by the RAS Institute of Sociology, undertakes to clear up changes that Russians’ self-consciousness has been undergoing during the last 20 years, as well as to find out, what the contemporary trends of society’s development are like. In what way have the Russian people’s views been changing in respect of such signal happenings of the latest history, as the economic reforms of the 1990s, the political transformations of the early 2000s? What are our compatriots’ perceptions of their own role and of the role of their country? What is, in their opinions, the contemporary state of affairs inside Russia, what are the factors in which they find support, and what is their attitude to life? The investigation within the presented report seeks to find answers to these questions.