printMismatched Ideals of the “Happy Past”:
a Comparison of the Right-Wing Conservative Discourse in Russian and European Social Networks
Pain E.A.
Dr. Sci. (Polit.), PhD (Hist.), Leading Researcher, Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS, Moscow, Russia painea@mail.ru
Pain E.A. Mismatched Ideals of the “Happy Past”: a Comparison of the Right-Wing Conservative Discourse in Russian and European Social Networks. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2026. No 5. P. 17-30
The article presents the results of a comparative analysis of the political discourse of European and Russian right-wing forces on social media. It shows that, despite the high level of mutual alienation between modern Russian and European societies, there are signs of ideological similarity in the discourse of some right-wing groups. However, there are also significant differences between the groups, reflecting the fundamental characteristics of the political systems and political cultures of Russia and the EU countries. European and Russian right-wing conservatives advocate the restoration of the traditional “happy past,” but their images of the past differ. For Russian right-wing conservatives, this is the model of the Romanov Empire or the Stalin-Brezhnev USSR, while for European nationalists, it is the model of sovereign nations before the formation of the EU, and any form of a multinational state is unacceptable to them. The article provides examples of the erosion of the similarities between European and Russian right-wing conservatives when European nationalists are included in coalition governments in EU countries. The article summarizes the research published in the author’s three previous articles in 2025–2026 and relies on discourse analysis combined with social media content analysis.
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