ABSTRACT
Nationalism in Russia is a rather weak concept which has often changed its meaning over time. The distinction between political nationalism and ethnic nationalism should be stressed. While the nationalism of the nation-state is on the wane, the nationalism of ethnic groups is at an unprecedentedly high level. Russia has traditionally had a strong state, a weak society and an underdeveloped sense of nation. The imperial idea substituted for nationalism, and thus Russia remained rooted in nineteenth-century ideas of national grandeur, but failed fully to enter the era of mass nationalism. The Zhirinovskyites are a tendency very much associated with Vladimir Zhirinovsky's own eccentric style of politics, even though formally organised in the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. Rather than imposing the notion of nationalism, it might be better to speak of the Russian national movement, associated with the development of the Russian national idea.
