The fact of overcoming specific forms of colonial thinking is associated not only with the transformation of the activities of countries that had a colonial political strategy, but also with a change in the consciousness of citizens of the former colonies, with the creation of their perception of themselves as worthy members of society. Guillermo Rebollo Gil, Gurminder K Bhambra considered the problem of awareness of citizens previously subjected to social pressure becomes a central idea in the transformation of social relations. However, people's self-esteem can be transformed more significantly when they find themselves in a qualitatively different type of society, where division and deprivation along national or racial lines were not present as a common paradigm of thinking. In order to study the characteristics of the transformation of self-esteem and self-perception of representatives of African states studying or temporarily living in Russia, the author conducted a sociological study using a focus group interview (N = 27 groups) of representatives of the Republic of Congo, the Republic of Mozambique, the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. The study showed that in the first three months of social adaptation, representatives of African states felt a certain discomfort due to the lack of a psycho-emotional barrier in the interaction of representatives of different nationalities. They note that the discovery of this trend had a positive impact on their self-esteem. During the formation of interpersonal communication at the initial stages, it was noted that their own personal position was perceived by others with surprise and misunderstanding, which, after the first adaptation stage, led to the complete disappearance of derogatory self-esteem from the cognitive field or a destructive assessment of one's own culture. Focus group participants noted that the experience of living and communicating in Russian society formed their ideas about free and equal treatment of people.