Abstract: The subject of the article is the problematic role of historical memory in the formation of Russian national identity. The author examines in detail the phenomenon of historical memory, distinguishing its social kinds (individual, collective, and cultural memory) and discursive forms (living, objectified, and organized memory). On a material of the survey of Don students (in comparison with the data of similar surveys conducted by the Fund «Public opinion» and the Levada Center), the author innovatively analyzes the students' appraisals of the key and controversial Soviet past events such as the October Revolution, industrialization and collectivization, the collapse of the Soviet Union and others. Moreover, the article discusses the role of these appraisals in the students’ attitudes to «Crimean spring» and the unrecognized republics of Donbass.Theoretical and methodological basis of research is the constructivist concept of historical memory, developed in the domestic and foreign science. The empirical basis for this article is provided by the results of a questionnaire survey conducted in 2014-2016 years by the team of scientists from Southern Federal University and the Southern Scientific Center RAS, in the framework of a research project devoted to the study of radical right-wing ideologemes in the minds of student youth of the Rostov region.To the novelty of this study include the systematization by the author of various social kinds and discursive forms of historical memory. Author uses constructively the difference between «cold» and «hot» historical memory strategies to assess the politics of memory in post-Soviet Russia. In this regard, the author criticizes the postmodern absolutization of myth in the construction of national memory and indicates the need for implementation of the «study of difficult past» strategy. The author provides new arguments in favor of the thesis that there is in Russian society (including student youth) a request for a stronger rehabilitation of the Soviet period of Russian history than is the case in today's official politics of memory. Materials and conclusions of article will be useful for optimization of that politics.