Russia switched its ideology in 1991 from communism to nationalism.

Judge as of 2021-11-11, against mainstream historical scholarship. The claim has two parts: (a) Russia dropped communism as its state ideology in 1991, and (b) the ideology that replaced it was nationalism. TRUE: historians generally describe Russia's 1991 transition as a move from communism to nationalism as the governing ideology. MOSTLY TRUE: nationalism is widely identified as a central post-1991 ideology, with only minor caveats about timing. MIXED: scholarship is genuinely split between nationalism and other characterisations (e.g. liberal-democratic or market reform) as the 1991 replacement ideology. MOSTLY FALSE: (a) holds, but scholarship describes the immediate post-1991 ideology mainly as liberal, market or democratic reformism, with nationalism becoming dominant only later. FALSE: the evidence shows no ideological switch away from communism in 1991.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Authoritarian politics of ideas, interests and policy change UvA-DARE (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Dąbrowska, E.A. (PhD thesis) · 2019

   “During the 1990s, these ideas did not constitute a mainstream ideology supported by the Yeltsin regime and its oligarchs, but they nevertheless spoke to many losers of the reform process.”

2. E2 Authoritarian politics of ideas, interests and policy change UvA-DARE (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Dąbrowska, E.A. (PhD thesis) · 2019

   “In the run-up to the parliamentary election of December 1995 and to the presidential election of June/July 1996, all parties and candidates propagated nationalist ideas, extending them by elements of geopolitics and references to the Orthodox religion”

3. E3 The Era of Liberalism versus Communism in Russia Is Over Carnegie Endowment for International Peace · 15 December 2003

   “For the first decade of post-communist politics in Russia , the central cleavage was between left and right, communist and anti-communist, or ?reformers? and non-reformers.”

4. E4 The Era of Liberalism versus Communism in Russia Is Over Carnegie Endowment for International Peace · 15 December 2003

   “At the end of the decade, it seemed as if one of Russia 's greatest successes was that nationalism did not take hold as a major force in Russian politics”

E3 describes the 1990s as Russia's "first decade of post-communist politics", which supports part (a), the move away from communism. The same source says the main divide in that decade was between communists and anti-communist "reformers" (E3). It adds that at the end of the decade it seemed as if nationalism had not taken hold as a major force in Russian politics (E4). E1 says certain ideas did not constitute a mainstream ideology supported by the Yeltsin regime during the 1990s, though they spoke to many losers of the reform process. E2 shows that parties used nationalist ideas in the 1995–96 elections, but that is a partial caveat and does not make nationalism the 1991 replacement ideology. This matches the criteria's mostly-false case: Russia did drop communism, but the immediate replacement is described mainly as reformism, not nationalism.