The article presents a comparative analysis of visual images of the modern state, analyzed on the basis of data systematization and generalization of psychological pictures, carried out by Russian and German citizens in spring of 2018. The principal parameters can be summarized in the following way: simplicity / complexity, plotline, pictures’ meaning element, composition, pictures’ objective side. Visual characteristics of the state image are exposed and interpreted amid global trends of political development, from the perspective of a handful of factors – constant and situational, additionally, emphasis are put on political and cultural peculiarities of two countries and the reflection of them in the pictures of the respondents; the influence of internal/external political conjuncture on the perception of modern state. There drawn conclusions and generalizations on structural, semantic, plotline similarities and differences of images in the perception of the respondents from Russia and Germany.
image of the state; visual characteristics of the state image; process of perception; designed draft; political culture; values; conceptions; mass political consciousness.