FACTORS SHAPING RUSSIA’S SOCIO- CULTURAL POLICY IN THE NEWLY INDEPENDENT STATES

The article analyzes the key factors and conditions that influenced the formation of Russia’s political course in the socio-cultural space of the newly independent states in the period after the collapse of the USSR. The objective prerequisites that contributed to the preservation of sociocultural community, as well as factors that hindered this process, such as economic differentiation, nationalist ideologies and external influence, are considered. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the role of language, religion and the intelligentsia in the formation of socio-cultural processes in the post-Soviet space.