Image of Russia in Political Perceptions of Russian Students

This research is devoted to the study of the changing political perceptions of the Russian students about the country after the accession of Crimea as the event, localized in the present. The specifics of this situation lies in the fact that the modern Russian students are included in the process of political socialization and their political perceptions are based on historical events located in the past. It means that students were not witnesses of important historical phenomena and processes, while the accession of Crimea could be feel by the students and their own experience. This work is divided into two parts, the first of which is a review of theoretical and empirical sources on the issue of political perceptions, the role of historical events in their development and the image of the country; and second part is represented by analysis of 549 interviews with students from elite universities in Moscow (NRU HSE, MSU, MGIMO) collected for 2013-2016 by the Laboratory for Political Studies NRU HSE with the participation of the author of this research. According to results of this part, the image of Russia was divided on perceptions of territory, history, culture, politics (domestic and foreign), the socio-economic sphere and the people; there were analyzed the level of relevance of images, their positive and negative features, structural elements, and their comparison before and after the accession of Crimea.