What do Russians believe?
Data - Leading researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yulia Apikina (meeting of the Russian Bankers Association "Social Structure and Differentiation of Russian Society", 2026). What amazed me the most was how within a quarter of a century the share of Russians who believe in an international conspiracy against Russia has doubled; Now it is more than half of the adult population (51.5%). The researcher herself explains the phenomenon as follows:
"The conspiracy cluster has increased its share, which can be considered an interesting phenomenon.
In 1998, it included men over the age of 50 who lived in a large or medium-sized city and did not consider themselves religious. They had a subjective assessment of their financial situation as unstable. In 2024 it is also about men, even non-believers. But the social profile of the cluster has changed in relation to the level of education: these are now highly educated men. At the same time, the economic problems continued. This state of frustration is exactly the social basis that creates such a cluster of conspiracies.
Here a mechanism of incompatibility with status is at work: high skills do not bring the expected economic returns, which causes frustration and a need to find an explanation. And the conspiracy theory suggests this: I'm not a loser, but the system is working against me. It's not that the market is unfair, but external forces that harm on purpose." But in general, judging by the share of believers in the phenomena presented in the table, we can say that about half of Russians live not only in conspiracy theories, but also in a kind of archaism, eschatology and paganism.