Based on the materials of an all-Russian representative survey by the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in April 2024, we analyze the polar groups of Russians differing in their ideas about whether Russia is a part of Europe, or it should live by the same rules as Western countries and be oriented towards partnership with them.The study showed that the ratio of the consistent supporters’ of Russia’s independent path of development to those oriented to the pro-Western model of its development approximates 75% to 25%. The dynamics of these groups numbers demonstrate a growing ideological polarization among the mass strata of the population about the perceiving the “collective West” countries. The divergence of views in these polar groups is clearly manifest on all acute topical social issues – in assessments of the dominance of external or internal threats, the consequences of Western sanctions for Russia, the attitude to the Special military operation (SMO), as well as civilizational proximity of the Russian Federation to the-West-vs-the- East. Convictions of the supporters of the specific development vector are more consistent, while the internal structure of the group oriented towards the Western model for Russia’s development remains highly heterogeneous.