Historical memory plays a key role in strengthening unity of the basic spiritual values in mass consciousness, cultural, historical and spiritual heritage of the Russian people. Numerous factors contribute to status and trends in the historical memory in Russian society. The authors have conducted an extensive sociological monitoring of historical memory in Russian society for more than two decades. A series of research employing sociological methods to identify real, practical functioning of consciousness, attitudes and ratings of people, have resulted in information about the state of historical memory of Russians as one of the components of the spiritual situation in Russian society today. The article presents and analyses major results of the study of the current state of the historical memory in Russian society as well as the dynamics of changing historical perceptions and judgements. The article is structured into four parts. The first one outlines concepts of the historical memory. Following section dwells on peculiarities of formation of historical ideas and knowledge of the Russians including motives, information sources, age and gender preferences. The next section portrays population attitudes to a wide range of historical events, achievements/failures and personalities such as tzars, communist leaders, presidents and military commanders. The final section summarises reflection of different periods and events of history in modern Russian literature, on TV and in the press giving assessments of understating, objective interpreting or overstating their historical roles.