Tamilina, L. (2025). Tracing the Historical Origins of Contemporary Political Cultures: A Comparative Analysis of Russia and Ukraine. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 0(0), 258-278. https://publications.kse.ua/publications/tracing-historical-origins-contemporary-political-1003

1. Briefly describe your research and the results obtained

The study I conducted examined how a nation's historical experiences shape its contemporary political values. I focused on two main factors: long-term occupation and territorial division. To keep the analysis manageable, I specifically looked at Ukraine and Russia, given my familiarity with their histories.

The goal was to explore how these historical events might influence political attitudes and preferences, particularly through shared psychological responses. For example, Ukraine’s experiences with occupation and territorial division seemed to foster more pro-democratic values, while Russia, lacking these experiences, appeared to have a less democratic political culture.

1. What problem does your research solve? Why did you decide to start this research? What is its relevance to the scientific community?

The inspiration for this study came from a simple observation: despite Ukraine and Russia sharing similarities in religion, race features, and recent history, they have shown striking differences in support for democracy since 1991. Through personal conversations with people from both countries, I became convinced that this divide was deeply rooted in the psychology of their societies. I started thinking—just as individual psychology often traces problems back to early life experiences, could the same be true for nations? This led me to focus on historical events as formative experiences that may have significantly shaped each country's political culture. The journal editors noted that this approach offered a fresh perspective and an alternative explanation to the conventional modernization theory of democratization.

1. Describe the scientific approach within which you conducted the research. Describe your methodology: the methods and resources you used.

The novelty of this study lies in applying latent class analysis, drawing on data from all waves of the World Values Survey. This approach allowed me to identify classes reflecting distinct patterns in how historical events influence the political values of entire societies.

1. What difficulties have you encountered during your research?

The main challenge was finding appropriate ways to measure the key concepts. On the one hand, it's difficult to capture the long-term impact of historical events. On the other hand, even when focusing on more recent aspects of political culture, existing surveys often lack specific questions that accurately measure the mechanisms of influence proposed by the study.

1. Tell us about the source of funding for your research.

This research was not funded by any source. I believe the best papers stem from researchers' personal passion for science rather than the pursuit of funding.