Abstract: The subject of this research is the specificity of perception of the Russian ethnos among the modern youth. The relevance of this research is associated with the orientation of social sciences upon the subjective images of the actors and observers of the important social processes. Cultural memory, as well as historical memory is fixed in the certain sustained images. The detection of the content, meaning, and the personal concepts of these images is essential for understanding the dynamics of social processes, cultural and social values, which predetermine these processes. Images and values that comprise the psychological reality of a person form a specific type of social behavior. The biggest associative groups of words reflect the main spheres, in which the students have established their opinion on what is Russian – national food, specificity of nature and environment, art and folklore. We can also define the spheres that are not much associated with the understanding of Russian – military and social spheres, natural resources, economics, politics, and history

Abstract: Article is devoted to the review of the main ideas and perspectives of researches of the scientists entering the circle "Eranos". As the representative works of those scientists which dealt with problems of studying of "imagination", founders of this direction of researches are chosen: Maria-Louise von Franz, Henri Corben, Joseph Campbell and Herbert Read. On the example of some scientific works development of the theory of imagination in the context of a psikhanaliz, religious studies, comparative mythology and art criticism is presented. The sociology of imagination is actual area of social knowledge. Archaic myths exist in modern social structures, in practicians of social subjects. The main method - the review of scientific researches of social imagination, the critical analysis of theoretical sources in imagination sociology area. The comparative-historical method by means of which sociological theories of imagination were investigated was applied. Scientific novelty consists in detailed consideration of a number of the works devoted to such form of social imagination which is embodied in fairy tales. Maria-Louise von Franz's ideas, Carl Gustav Jung's follower, the recognized expert in the field of social psychology of the fairy tale are most in detail considered. In addition, the concept "the imagined world" and its value for social psychology are analyzed.