At the end of every year, with a view to identify and analyze major social trends, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation prepares a report on the state of civil society.
Over the past years, the Civic Chamber has recorded a consistent and gradual expansion of the public-state dialogue in the state, the gradual involvement of nonprofit bodies that have become an equal partner of the state and society in tackling major socio-economic challenges, the growth of civic participation in the volunteer movement, which has enabled thousands of citizens of our country through direct social action to change the world in a constructive manner.
Over these years, Russia has faced many challenges in the economic, social and political spheres, which required reviewing public policy strategies, national development goals, and the foundations of the country’s legislation. These challenges include the conflict of values associated with the attempts of the cultural and ideological expansion of the Western system of values into Russia, the long-term sanctions policy of the alliance of Western states aimed at reducing the development potential of the Russian economy, the pandemic that challenged the entire world community, with the politicized counterweight resulting in a significant aggravation geopolitical contradictions between different states.
To address these and many other challenges, special solidarity, cohesion, and consolidation of civil society was put in place. Our country’s federal structure, coupled with national and cultural diversity predetermined that consensual form of decision-making, which basis was reinforced by public agreement on key issues of state development and its place in today’s world.
2022 has been marked by historical events that drastically changed the ordinary run of things. Crossing the red lines of the country’s national security predetermined the decision of the Russian President to launch a special military operation. The Western countries responded to this decision with an unprecedented increase in large-scale multi-year sanctions aimed at bringing about social disruption to Russian society and blocking the expansion of key sectors of the country’s economy, something that has never been seen before in recent world history.
In the current predicament, the state faced the most difficult challenges that had to be addressed simultaneously in all strategic areas of development with no exception. Throughout the year, at the state level, at the level of expert communities, and at the sites of civil society institutions, we have promoting active discussion of all these new challenges that determined the fundamental transformations that have stricken the economy, politics, and public life. We talked through the events that took place in 2022 as well as the cardinal transformations of the future that these events bring along; we discussed the elaboration of the patterns of the future that will be the result of our collective efforts and decisions made on key areas of development.
As part of this final report, we have set the goal of looking through the prism of past events at the key trends that occurred and took root in Russian society in the outgoing year.
These trends feature a high level of public consolidation achieved through introducing numerous humanitarian and public initiatives in providing assistance to residents of the territories affected by hostilities, unconditional support Russia’s accession of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions – all this has testified to the growing level of trust in Russian society, and in public bodies.
Since the beginning of the special military operation, the establishment of a unified humanitarian space, uniform conditions for public, project-related and socially useful activities covering the new regions’ territories has become a paramount task for Russian civil society institutions. The Civic Chamber has become one of the central platforms for implementing humanitarian projects, extending systemic assistance and interaction at the level of public institutions and nonprofit organizations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, head of the LPR Leonid Pasechnik, head of the DPR Denis Pushilin, head of the administration of the Kherson Region Vladimir Saldo, and head of the administration of the Zaporozhye Region Yevgeny Balitsky at a rally-concert in support of the accession of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Lugansk People’s Republic, Kherson, and Zaporozhye Regions to Russia. September 30, 2022. Ramil Sitdikov / RIA Novosti
Cooperation has been established with the civic chambers of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic – the bodies signed cooperation agreements with both the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and other civic chambers of Russian regions. Work with public figures and civil activists in the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions has been arranged, where complex and painstaking work is underway to create and build up the work of civil society institutions – chambers and councils of new regions.
The major direction in the work of Russian civil society institutions in the Donbass have been the projects aimed to promote the expansion of the nonprofit sector and public associations.
Today, resource centers to support public initiatives, numerous nonprofit, educational, charitable organizations, volunteers implementing large and small projects are actively working in the Donbass region, and the task of civil society institutions is to extend maximum support to these initiatives.
The ongoing sanction-supplied pressure on Russia from the Western world has posed serious challenges of economic, technological and educational sovereignty to the Russian society.
Timely and systematic state decisions to support the economy, the actions of the Central Bank of Russia to protect the Russian ruble, the introduction of a “parallel imports” system – all this enables the Russian economy to withstand the onslaught of sanctions and to lay the foundation for brand new approaches to economic expansion, the establishment of a real technological and economic sovereignty.
The issues of mobilizing the Russian economy, reviewing the strategic directions of its development, gaining import independence and building the appropriate scientific and educational potential as the basic for ensuring the implementation of new tasks of the country’s social and economic development have become the major areas of expert and public discussions in 2022.
The large-scale sanctions blow to the country’s economy also affected Russian NPOs, which in recent years have become the most important participants in public relations. It was the Russian NPO representatives, together with civil activists, who took on an active approach in helping refugees and internally displaced persons, and then extended assistance in the territory of the military conflict from the very first days of the humanitarian crisis in Donbass. The outcomes of this year have conclusively shown that Russian NPOs today account for the most structured part of civil society, supplementing the state where its capabilities or prompt response can be largely limited. A natural step of the state in 2022 was the decision to take extra measures of multilateral support for NPOs.
2022 was declared the year of the cultural heritage of the peoples of Russia by the President’s Decree. Numerous events of a scientific, cultural and educational nature, designed to enhance and expand interconfessional and interethnic dialogue, clearly demonstrated that today’s ethnocultural, religious associations, interethnic organizations working in this area NPOs have become indispensable institutions of civil society that interact effectively with the state on the widest range of national tasks. The state’s long-term work on harmonizing interethnic and interreligious relations in the country is also positively assessed by Russian society. The results of this work today speak for themselves: in spite all external attempts to divide Russian society along national, religious and cultural lines, the state, acting in direct interaction with civil society, managed to maintain international peace and harmony within the country.
One of the major issues in the dialogue of cultures and civilizations in recent years has become the topic of preserving traditional values. Today, in the face of external challenges, the Civic Chamber notes the growing demand in Russian society for these values to be protected. This request and an intermediate result of many years of discussions about the value orientations of Russian society have been captured in the signing of the Decree “On Approving the Foundations of State Policy for the Preservation and Strengthening of Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral Values” on by the President of Russia November 9, 2022.
The unprecedented attack on Russian culture in Western countries in 2022 – the so-called cancellation of Russian culture, manifested in attempts to politicize and discredit Russian-speaking culture – to isolate Russia from the international cultural community, has once again testified to the relevance and necessity of implementing Russia’s state policy in protecting and strengthening traditional values.
A significant event in the education of children and youth was the establishment of a new Russian Movement of Children and Youth, which brought together the largest Russian public organizations working with the younger generation. The Civic Chamber notes the high demand for a unified children’s movement by the Russian society, which would combine the best practices in civil-patriotic and military-patriotic education in its work, contributing to the creative power of patriotism among the young generation of our citizens. The purpose behind creating the movement embody the priority of state policy declared in the Constitution of Russia in a practical dimension, that is, the state’s care for children.
The key task of the state in recent years aimed to ensure the demographic stability of the nation. Large-scale work on the practical implementation of key areas of state family policy today provides for the opportunities to talk about the formation, with the direct involvement of civil society in establishing an integral system of measures of social support for families in need. The efficiency of the introduced support measures on a systematic basis is monitored by the Civic Chamber, ensuring that the current needs of citizens are brought to the state in order to correct existing and elaborate on new measures to support families with children. In 2022, the Civic Chamber proposed a new package of measures aimed at supporting the reproductive potential of the women generation aged over 30 and stimulating large families as the basis for Russia’s demographic expansion.
Geopolitical turmoil has not become a challenge to the national green agenda. Along with the state, experts, public opinion leaders, and civil activists are actively involved in addressing sustainable development issues. In 2022, the Civic Chamber initiated and established a platform where nonfinancial reports issued by organizations, regions and authorities are discussed and certified.
On November 2-3, the Victory Museum in Moscow hosted the final “Community” forum, which brought together more than 5,000 participants from all over the country. In 2022, representatives of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Lugansk People’s Republic, Zaporozhye, and Kherson Regions took part in the traditional annual event hosted by the Civic Chamber of Russia. Press Service of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation
The public demand for solving environmental problems remains relevant, thus increasing the importance of the development of environmental education and enlightenment.
2022 has become one of the most difficult years for our country in international cooperation for the past decade.
Amid an unprecedented crisis in traditional diplomacy, we intensify our efforts in strengthening the role of civil society in establishing dialogue between countries. The experience of international interaction of the Civic Chamber as part its presidency of the International Association of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions (AICESIS), through the work of international observation missions at elections and referenda abroad, clearly showed that partnership through civil society institutions and nonprofit organizations opens up vast opportunities for the exchange of experience and the implementation of joint projects, even in conditions when dialogue at the official level is difficult to achieve.
The events of the outgoing year have provided strong evidence for the maturity of Russian civil society, its willingness to consolidate all its institutions in order to ensure efficient cooperation with state authorities for the benefit of national interests, historical identity, independence of culture and traditions, as well as a shared future.
There are many complex, major tasks and goals lying ahead, which achievement is especially important to preserve the consensus that has formed and to ensure further unity of the efforts of the multinational people of Russia. And we got everything it needs – experience, successful practices, and civil solidarity.