Abstract
The paper is devoted to an attempt to capture the socio-cultural identity of members of the Russian community in the Czech Republic associated with the effort to construct a typology that allows a certain distinction within the whole. The question of identity is asked relatively often in the social sciences and humanities, but at the same time it causes some controversy.
The Bulgarian-French philosopher and sociologist Tzvetan Todorov even speaks of a not very good reputation of collective identity, which leads to "suspicion that it is a conspiracy against individual freedom." We approach the topic of collective identity, which is at the center of our professional interest, from a historical-sociological perspective; at the same time, however, we have to deal with certain facts that complicate this intention; it is mainly the fragmentation of the Russian historical tradition, the underdetermination of the term Russian identity, the migratory character of the studied collectivity and the influence of the new social environment. We base theoretical considerations on the plurality of socio-cultural identities on the inspiration provided by Robert K.
Merton's typology regarding various ways of adapting to a change in the socio-cultural situation. We will try to show the innovative potential of such an approach in its adaptation to the issues that can be expressed in terms of "Russian identity - Czech society".
This issue was monitored through empirical research of historical consciousness of Russians conducted in 2020-2021 using biographical and semi-structured in-depth interviews within the project SVV FHS UK No. 260 608/2020 "Czech Russians and the crossroads of modern and contemporary history: biographical interviews" (selection of narrators based on their self-identification). The aim of this paper is to show how it is possible to get from Merton's typological approach to understanding the specifics of each type of identity, even with regard to the period before resocialization, the impact of new social structures, choice of adaptation strategy in the new environment, subsequent social behavior, values and beliefs.