ABSTRACT

This chapter presents an attempt to map out ways to understand the day Russian nationalism as a culture-specific system of values and underlying beliefs, represented both at the grassroots and elite levels, as well as the conflict-free alternatives to it. It provides a philosophical framework based upon cultural-historical data. The framework is regarded as a policy-oriented work, in the broadest sense of the term. The chapter turns the terms of the dominant conceptual frameworks, somewhere between the analysis of civic nationalism and the examination of ideas that belong to the realm of ethnic nationalism. It traces the conflict-generating implications and peace-building potential of the two main versions of Russian nationalism: inclusive and exclusive. Ethical patriotism has deeper roots in the grassroots Russian culture than any kind of aggressive nationalism, especially fascism, to which Russia has had a very strong immunity since the Second World War.