Nation-building in contemporary Russia: four vectors of political piscourse

Abstract

This article contributes to the research of nation-building in modern Russia. Unlike most studies in this area, based on the ethnic/civic dichotomy or using the nation/empire dilemma, the rticle proposes a discursive model of nation-building in Russia, based on the interaction of four types of nationalism: civic, multicultural, imperial and civilizational. The results of content analysis of key political documents on nation-building in modern Russia (Strategies of the state national policy, presidential addresses, Vladimir Putin's articles) are presented and discussed. It is shown that civic nationalism with rhetorical references to civil society and its ability to build a nation from below is the most supported by the elite type of discourse on nation-building. However, in practice policy preference is given to the hegemonic state model of nation-building from "top to bottom," dominated by a carefully veiled imperial discourse.