Biyzhanova E.K. Russian Borderlands: A Sociological Retrospective of Interaction Between Border Guards and Local Population (1960–2025) ...

Текст статьи.

Abstract

In this article, based on the analysis of domestic scientific publications, memoirs and recollections published in the public domain, as well as some of the author’s empirical data, an attempt was made to identify the socio-cultural role and specifics of managing the border region of Russia through the prism of interaction between border services and the local population. It is noted that in the USSR, the  state’s involvement of the local population in protecting the state border not only increased the effectiveness of its barrier functions that ensured the country’s security, but also led to an increase in the level of trust in government bodies and increased the consolidation of the population and the level of patriotism. It is shown that the geopolitical upheavals that occurred in the 1990s led not only to changes in the structure of power and governance in the border regions of Russia, but also to sociocultural transformations in the consciousness of the population, which, given current trends, will lead to an increase in the “center-periphery” gap.