Images of protest leaders in the representation of Russian youth

The publication presents the results of a study devoted to the study of images of Russian protest political figures in the representation of young people. In the course of an empirical study conducted in the spring of 2020, students of higher educational institutions in Vladivostok and St. Petersburg were interviewed. Both the leaders of the liberal non-system opposition (A. Navalny and L. Sobol) and the leader of the Communist party of Russia G. Zyuganov were taken as objects. We used the method of semantic differential (SD), factorization of data by the principal component method, as well as the method of free associative experiment. The categorical structure of the semantic space of ideas about protest political leaders was determined. The General categories identified on the basis of factorization of SD data include such axes of evaluating political leaders as “intellectual and leadership qualities”, “aggressiveness”, “hypocrisy and corruption”, and “honesty and kindness”. These categories reflect the structure of young people's political thinking. Based on these semantic universals, the images of Russian protest leaders were reconstructed and their main characteristics in the representation of young people were revealed. Analysis of the results showed the presence of many common structural components in the political consciousness of young people in different cities of Russia. Young people use roughly the same basic categories for evaluating political leaders. The images of protest leaders in the representation of the youth of the two cities also turned out to be almost identical. The results of the study can be useful for researchers, political forces, political and civil leaders.

political leader, image, protest, political stereotypes, Vladivostok, Saint-Petersburg, youth