Presently, the topic of civilizational identity and ethno-cultural traditions has gained urgency in Russia. The contemporary approach to this subject is characterized by socio-cultural changes that emphasize the individual’s role in the selection of traditions, alongside the expansion of social and humanitarian understanding of tradition. This necessitates the reconceptualization of these phenomena from the perspective of the individual’s life world. In particular, the stereotypical view of tradition as merely a set of habitual patterns of thinking and behavior uncritically received by each generation does not correspond to the reality of traditional societies, where tradition was continuously reflected upon. In contemporary public policy, especially within education, individuals are portrayed as holders of various resources (e.g., competencies). Therefore, efforts to transmit tradition via the narrative of personal belonging to tradition contradict this image. It is suggested to reconceptualize tradition as heritage directed toward the individual within the context of ownership relations. Four forms of tradition as heritage are identified: inheritance, where the past is an integral part of the present, contributing to its specificity; bequest, which encompasses the objects and practices preserved from the past into the present; legacy, defined as a collection of values that mutually reinforce each other’s meaning; and repercussions, or vestiges, which may manifest as private anecdotal elements of the past or «toxic nostalgia» within the conflict between liberal tradition and traditional values. Developing the ability to distinguish between inheritance, legacy, bequest, and vestiges helps avoid misinterpreting accidental phenomena as necessary and private examples as representations of the essence of ethnocultural tradition.
tradition; heritage; legacy; inheritance; identity; property; personality.