ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the variable quality of Russian nationalism: It varies in content, degree of empowerment, and impact on the national interest in Russian foreign policy. It describes four strands of Russian nationalism that range from the most benign to the most malevolent. These are liberal nativism, Westernizing democracy, statist nationalism, and national patriotism. The empowerment of nationalism requires, at the outset, the existence of adequately motivated agents to purvey the ideology. The international system can hinder malevolent nationalism if it offers resources other than self-help to allow a state to defend against security threats. Russian nationalism traversed a rough and uneven path in the first six decades of Communist rule, from Lenin to Brezhnev. The propagation of Russian nationalism has intensified since the Soviet Union's collapse. The international factor most relevant to the empowerment of statist nationalism is Russia's near abroad, or blizhnee zarubezh'e, which refers to new states of the former Soviet Union.
