Kremlin Aide Says Russia Now has a New Triad of Defining Values in Place of Uvarov’s ‘Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 19 – Boris Rapoport, deputy head of the Presidential Administration’s Administration for Monitoring and Analysis of Social Processes, says Russia has moved on beyond tsarist education minister Serey Uvarov’s 1833 as a country defined by “Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality.”

            Now, the Kremlin aide says, Russia is characterized by a new trinity, “a sovereign country, traditional society and a social state” which he defines in an article in the new issue of the Civic Education Notebook (gumilev-center.ru/v-kremle-predlozhili-zamenu-izvestnojj-triade-samoderzhavie-pravoslavie-narodnost/).

            According to Rappoport, sovereignty consists of “unity around the leader and defense against foreign threats,” traditional society means “the continuity of generations and faith in traditions and spiritual values, and a social state is about “the defense of citizens under conditions of growing inequality.”

            Although the Kremlin aide writes as it what he is doing is simply summing up a change that has already occurred, his notions are already generating the kind of sharp criticism that means his ideas may not be as universally accepted as he implies (e.g., ng.ru/editorial/2025-12-18/2_9404_red.html).

            There have been other attempts to replace the Uvarov triad, but Rappoport’s is the most extensive of recent ones and comes from the most senior official to take up this task. Consequently,  he is likely right that his triad is one that many in the Kremlin do already accept although it is far from clear that most Russians  accept either it or his definitions.