Abstract

When the Russian history is examined in general, there is a strong tendency about the priority of the state and it becomes possible to talk about a clear political attitude about the sanctity of the state. It is seen that this tendency and attitude has been preserved and tried to be maintained from the Knez to the Tsarist Period, from the Soviet Union to the present. When we look at the Vladimir Putin Era, we encounter the reality that the political stance of “Russia belongs to the Russians” was added to this understanding of the importance of the state by harmonizing it. In his power that started in the early 2000s, Putin tried to make this addition by considering different dimensions and to build his own understanding of the state. Putin, who started a new era in the Russian Federation in many respects, went far beyond being an ordinary politician with his style of politics that protects the state and considers the security of the state as a top priority. Because, Putin, who has been in power for nearly a quarter of a century, has determined some ideals and principles that sanctify the state, together with a handful of elites who think like him, making it almost difficult for anyone who does not adopt these ideals and principles to live in the Russian Federation. In line with his historical background, Putin also tried to be a statesman who made the ideal of being a “Great State” a state policy. In Russia, which entered into a rapid economic recovery after 2000, when it took over the power, social-scale problems were postponed, albeit partially. Problems that were postponed in the relatively prosperous environment created by the economic recovery have re-emerged in a more ingrained and enlarged state. Violations and illegal practices that have started to emerge regarding democracy, freedom and human rights have been criticized by a significant part of the society. In this study, the question of how the “state” phenomenon took place in the historical process of Russia, how it was perceived and what the origin of the sacred view developed about the state is. Then, the main subject of the study is the meaning and importance of the “state” in the Russian Federation, and the arguments related to what can be sidelined against it are examined in the light of the literature and the theoretical framework is tried to be formed in the context of these questions.