The subject of the article is conceptualization of identity as resource of societal development. Social identity is analyzed following its national-civilizational, national-state, political (civic) dimensions. Problems of the shaping of Russian identity are considered by the authors in the context of consolidation of the resource potential of the country’s modernization. Special efforts are directed at analyzing the dynamics of identity under the conditions of globalization, at revealing the main types and models of identity, that characterize the outlines of the socio-cultural medium of the early 21st century. In the authors’ approach to problems of analysis and prognostication of the world development, significant methodological role belongs to their studies of the changes taking place in man’s value orientations and behavior models.