Past and present: the influence of a distorted view of the history of the Great Patriotic War on the attitude of students towards Special Military Operation (using the example of the Rostov region)
This article examines the formation of young people's attitudes towards the Special Military Operation, which is influenced by their perception of the country during the Great Patriotic War. The study focuses on students from higher education institutions in the Rostov region. The empirical basis of the article is based on data obtained by the Center for Social and Political Research at the Southern Federal University in 2024-2025 during the implementation of a panel sociological study titled “The Image of the Great Patriotic War in the Perceptions of Contemporary Russian Students: Issues of Civil Identity and Civic-Patriotic Education”. The research method used was an online survey. The article explores the interest of Don students in the history of the Great Patriotic War and examines their level of agreement with the most popular fake claims used in destructive propaganda. The article also looks at how university students' opinions about the need to celebrate Victory Day have changed over the last ten years. Additionally, the article explores the opinions of students regarding the necessity of the Special Military Operation, its causes, and its goals. The main focus of the article is on analyzing the comparison of the main elements of the Great Patriotic War in the perceptions of students and their perception of the events taking place during the Special Military Operation. The author concludes that the negative image of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War has a direct impact on the perception of current events, leading to the formation of an opinion about the Special Military Operation as an invasion.
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Information for citation: Magranov, A. S. (2026), “Past and present: the influence of a distorted view of the history of the Great Patriotic War on the attitude of students towards special military operation (using the example of the Rostov region)”, Research Result. Sociology and Management, 12 (2), 138-157,
DOI: 10.18413/2408-9338-2026-12-2-0-9.
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