The relevance of the study is conditioned by the need for formation of theoretical and practical knowledge and technologies that allow to determine the structure of motivation of socio-political and protest activity. The purpose of the study is to investigate motivation of protest and socio-political activity of an individual and its potential within the system of life-purpose orientations. Presumably, the motivational structure of socio-political and protest activity reveals similarities in the manifestation of qualitative and quantitative characteristics.