In the article, it is proposed that the collapse of Soviet society was presaged by a growing crisis in late Soviet morality. On the periphery of late Soviet morality, collective cultural practices are seen to have successfully functioned based on a limited ethics of virtue. In the absence of an alternative to Soviet ideology, social regulation started to draw upon values intended for the reproduction of local communities. A growing contradiction between the limited values of the new social class/corporate entities and the need to develop universal values for a big society is currently the key ideological legitimation problem facing the Russian political order.

*The work was supported by the research project “Social Cohesion in Russia and the Construction of Civil Identity as a Way to Achieve It” under the guidance of V.N. Rudenko (research program “Ethnic and Cultural Diversity of Russian Society and the Strengthening of Russian National Identity”).

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