In late 2007, presentation was held of a report prepared by the Institute of Sociology workshop headed by M.K.Gorshkov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It covers on the basis of representative public opinion surveys the most urgent, life-purport problems related to Russian citizens’ self-feeling and their perception of the world around. The research paper is valuable first of all thanks to the comparison of nowadays state of mass consciousness with the data of the previous surveys since 1998. In the part of the report published in this issue, mainly political science aspects of the Russian identity’s evolution are considered.