The article concerns the state of political awareness of contemporary Russians. It must be noted that the vast majority of Russians are characterized by apathy with a very strong separation between the private and the state spheres. The state sphere is understood through stereotypes and myths shaped by the state-owned media and it is characterized by the emotional mentality and the besieged fortress syndrome, with an increasing level of alienation and a feeling of hostility towards all „others”. In the private sphere, there is a predominance of vegetative thinking and, in many areas (especially in the North Caucasus), of tribal or post-tribal mentality. Only a small minority is characterized by this type of thinking, that is characteristic of a totalitarian political gnosis. Such criteria of the existence of totalitarian political gnosis as an objective foe or an aspiration to save the world (or at least a part of it) are met only by a small portion of the Russian society.