Considered in the article are the reasons and the consequences of developed and modern societies’ dislocation toward postmaterial values, as stated by global sociological studies. As for global distribution of postmaterial values, the article notes both the positive and the limiting factors due to the center-to-periphery structure of the capitalist world system. As is illustrated in the article, notwithstanding the relevant strengthening of postmaterial values under the conditions of global (late, cosmopolitan) Modern, the transition to these values is rather a chance (a possibility) for each particular society, than general historical law. At the example of post-Soviet Russia the article, in particular, depicts the reasons of the long-term steadiness of the antimodern consensus imposed on the society by the elites, hindering such a transition.