Strengthening a «civil religion» in the society can be a way to raise the level of social cohesion of the people, the degree of inclusiveness of their social identity. Civil religion is usually developed using a framework social identity linked to the place of living. One of such identities could be an urban identity. The article presents the results of investigation of local social identities of nine Russian cities using the author's original method. It turned out that a fairly complete list of the structural elements of urban identities can be represented as follows: (1) Central place of the community; (2) Common imagination of local residents about the city’s geography, including (2a) the urban surroundings and (2b) views of the city on the map of the country and of the world; (3) Values, relics, myths of self-confidence of urban residents in the contexts of (3a) the city as a whole, and of (3b) the citizens themselves; (4) Anthropological characteristics of residents; (5) Rituals of «being together»; (6) Pantheon of heroes of the city; (7) General structure of the urban community. The collected array of components of the structural elements of urban identities can also be rearranged using the following classes: «Historical results of the city evolution», «Historical events», «Geographic significances,» «Urban significances», «Anthropological significances», «Common imagination of the residents about their behavior, customs and attitudes», and «Different others».