The policy of “cancelling” the achievements of Russian culture, carried out by the “collective West”, has become the subject of public and academic debate in recent years. The main questions that participants of these discussions have focused their attention on today are: is the “cancel culture” in its current liberal version a culture, or a manipulative technology hostile to culture; is the “cancel culture” a phenomenon of modern politics, or does it have historical roots; how should Russian society and the state respond to the hostile actions of the West? The issue of the infl uence of Western sanctions against Russian culture, as well as the eff orts of domestic politicians and scholars to develop a strategy to counter these sanctions on the process of forming political identities of the younger generation of Russian citizens, remained outside the subject fi eld of discussions. The article notes that contradictions in theoretical discussions about the nature and purpose of the “cancel culture” give young citizens reason to doubt the readiness and ability of the Russian state to give an adequate response to hostile actions on the part of the West. The article formulates and substantiates a variant of such an answer.