Transformation of student citizenship in a “turning point” (based on focus groups and essays by university students of the Rostov region in 2022 and 2024)

The article analyzes the opinions and civil positions of students of the Rostov region universities in the context of a Special Military Operation and a destructive ideological war of the collective West against the Russian Federation. Based on the materials of the focus group and essays of the Don students in October – November 2022 (8 groups) and in April 2024 (6 groups, 203 essays), the life-forming factors of student youth are described: life, peace, humanism, family and immediate environment, collectivism and mutual assistance, historical memory, small homeland, patriotism. The events and factors that influenced the moral and social state of the Don students are identified: confrontation with existential problems of war and peace, life and death; uncertainty of the future in the context of the inevitability of a Special Military Operation, cultural isolation of Russia, geopolitical risks and transformation of the world order. In the face of an existential choice, there is a rethinking of the value of family, an increase in the role of the immediate circle and small homeland. A targeted state policy of memory, glorification and memorization of the Special Military Operation participants creates the ground for an increase in the role of historical memory, the values of patriotism and citizenship, trust in the authorities and approval of political decisions. The perception of Western values becomes more critical; the severity of anxiety about the cultural, economic, political isolation of Russia is erased. The hypothesis about the existence of two models of citizenship of Russian students was confirmed: a) the first (civic consciousness as public-state patriotism) is associated with factors of sociocentrism, where there is an identity with one's family, ethnic group, small homeland, and civic identity with the Russian state is strengthened, associated with a sense of duty, responsibility and obligation to it; b) the second (global citizenship) is based on the principles of anthropocentrism with guarantees of observance of constitutional rights and freedoms, humanistic values and global citizenship, but without the individual's obligations to the state.