Factors of historical information credibility assessment in student environment (Great Patriotic War representations)
Amidst the transformation of collective memory transmission mechanisms and the transition from “living testimony” (communicative memory) to cultural memory mediated by institutions, the issue of information credibility acquires particular urgency. The relevance of the study is driven by the fact that today’s university students, acting as “digital natives”, shape their historical consciousness within a landscape of multiple interpretative models and an overabundance of contradictory information flows. In this context, the key research problem lies in the insufficient understanding of the factors that determine whether youth adopt strategies of critical reflection or trust toward historical content concerning the Great Patriotic War, as well as how specific regional trajectories of political socialization influence these processes. To address this issue, a sociological study was conducted (N=2272, January-February 2025, across 15 universities in five Russian regions). The findings, obtained through binary logistic regression, indicate that patriotic self-identification (OR=2.72; p<0.001) and a high interest in history (OR=1.77; p<0.001) serve as the strongest predictors of trust in the official narrative. It was established that institutional channels (universities, schools) strengthen trust in institutional narratives, whereas predominant reliance on Internet sources statistically significantly reduces it (OR=0.65; p<0.001). Factor analysis identified three types of students' information practices: cultural-educational, digital, and institutional. The empirical data suggest that patriotism in the youth environment functions as a cognitive filter for selecting and evaluating historical information. Despite the expansion of digital media, educational institutions maintain their status as “zones of trust” amidst the competition of narratives. The observed regional variability – ranging from high uncertainty in the newly incorporated regions to maximum trust in Crimea – underscores the final conclusion that the stability of youth historical consciousness is directly dependent on the specific local trajectories of political socialization.
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