Where does the line between patriotism and nationalism lie?
When they want to distract people from the events going on in some country, they are ingenious at raising the national question. This being the case, the algorithm of influencing the Russian reader or listener, for instance, is the same:
1) Putin (Medvedev, the Government etc.) has/have sold us;
2) The Caucasians/Chinese/Americans offend us, kill us, etc.;
3) the Cossacks/police/military are not what they used to be, and they won’t protect us;
4) What are we to do? How do we live? How to go on? I stand for Rus’ – of that I’m proud, at that exult!
The national question is a sure “Ace” in politics. That’s how it was and how it will always be. Political leaders rise with the help of it, when they have nothing else to help them rise. Playing upon primitive nationalistic instincts, one can easily turn people’s attention from real problems (it will just suffice to mention fee paid education, for instance) to far-fetched ones. A man can change anything: political views, tastes, beliefs and even faith, but he will never change nationality. That’s exactly why interethnic conflicts are most easily fomented, dirty and inhuman.
How great man is! And at the same time insignificant. He has come a long way from caves to fashionable skyscrapers, from sticks to space arms, from bonfire to the microwave. Artificial Earth Satellite, nuclear bomb, cloning, revolutionary discoveries in all kinds of science. All this huge range of world cultural values: masterpieces of architecture, painting, literature, music, cinema…One could name man’s achievements till the crack of doom. And at the same time the mankind still fails to do away with low sides of its nature.
Is there a line between nationalism and patriotism? And where does it come? It seems to me, it’s very thin. I love Russia. Both “wooden Rus’” and the one “bristled up by the commune”1 (1.quotation from Sergey Esenin). I love even what they now call Russia, though, in fact, it’s ZAO “The Russian Federation”, disposing of its territory resources. I love its history, though, together with the heroic ones, there are also enough shameful, cruel and bloody pages, both with regard to its nation and the nations, living on its territory.
I love my nation, though, to tell the truth, there are a lot of reasons to dislike it, but still, by far, not fewer reasons to admire it. At least for the fact that, in spite of the forced, centuries-long tries of the Government to bring the Russian man to the level of rightless trash, which continue to take place to the present day, it still has not fully lost humanness and cogitative faculties.
When I ride through the great spaces of our Motherland – albeit on board of an old “Ikarus” - I feel comforted by the thought that all this huge space is mine, conquered by my ancestors.
I am proud of the fact that lots of not just well-known, but world-famous people, who have contributed into art, science and other areas of human activity, are Russians. There were people of quite different blood among them, but they considered themselves Russians, took Russian nation to the heart and created in the name of Russia. Were Russians nationalists, would the works of Pushkin, paintings of Roerich, scholarly works of Alferov see the light? For us, a Russian is the one considering himself so, even if at the same time he is only one tenth Russian by blood. An indicator of “Russianness” is the feeling of communion, the feeling of belonging.
I, Russian, adore the Victory Day – not only for understandable reasons, but also because it symbolizes the quality which I’m particularly proud of in my mentality – the quality of unifying internationalism. Would this victory take place were Russians nationalists?
If a man likes Russian culture, the Russian language, Russian nature and typical Russian phenomena…the things, being associated with the concept “Russian” – is it nationalism? Probably, no. If he loves it and considers it native. But if at the same time he feels antipathy, albeit not aggressive, towards everything “not Russian” – that’s probably what we call nationalism. Such a phenomenon is not an indicator of spiritual and intellectual maturity of society and doesn’t make any nation look better.
There are enough bright, well-educated, intellectually developed people among nationalists, but in general, they are primitive and limited. It’s a typical human quality – instead of rising and instructing themselves, they try to belittle others and teach them how to live, demonstrating arrogance at the same time. Every technical school student considers himself being art and part in Gagarin’s flight and Diaghilev’s ‘Ballets Russes’ in Paris. Besides, he argues about the merits of our glorious ancestors to the Fatherland with such pathos, as if he, personally, went to space and danced on stage of the Bolshoi theatre. And besides, he acts as if he fails to succeed in life only because of representatives of other nations and the territorial unity of the Russian Federation.
No, there’s nothing bad in healthy nationalism, but as the majority of people distort this concept in the end, and, having primitive perception, can never separate dogs from fleas, such an approach is unacceptable – particularly in the circumstances of today’s reality: when refinement and peacefulness are considered a weakness, and nationalistic ignorance (particularly ostentatious) – strength. It’s going to be the same story as with the Russian revolution, when the ideas of educated and clever people, lucid and progressive at first, led to mass destruction of the cream of the nation, loss of territories and other negative phenomena. Or as with “Perestroika” (Restructuring), when the goal was to reform and modernize the state, but, as a result, we got its destruction and such consequences, which, in the light of the recent trends, we are not to do away with ever.
The trash, in the squares, yelling their battle-cries: “Russia for Russians”, ready to give away every last Russian territory, are not a nation to me. Nationalism is a beast, difficult to satiate. At first, they don’t like the Caucasians and the Asians, then they will get down to the Tartars, the Bashkirs, etc. After that, they will finally get to the Ukrainians, and in the end they will delve into the genealogy of every Russian. And we’ll become a nation with a population of 1,5-2 million, which has nothing left to do, but rely on its destiny and argue about whose village is more pure-blooded. That’s when we’ll get not a single Nobel prize nominee for sure.
When we feel proud of being Russians, it is the achievements of our country we are proud of, the heroic moments of its history, the representatives of our nation, who have become part of it, not only on the national, but on the international level as well. Nationalism is too shallow for us. Let’s leave it to others.
If you want to be a patriot of your nation, become its deserving representative, make your country famous by your achievements in sport, science, art…or at least, just do your work well to be useful to people. But that’s what’s hard, while to think that “we will make everybody go away, and we’ll live wonderful” is much easier.
Patriotism is an inner feeling. Love toward your motherland. Pride for its victories, and sorrow for its losses, belief in its better tomorrow. It’s civic consciousness. As Turgenev wrote, “Russia can do without anyone of us. But none of us can do without Russia”.
Do we need any special ideology? The Russians are already united by their desire to live in a prospering state, peace and individual well-being. Without any battle-cries or doctrines. Ideology is a typical Russian historical know-how. Western Europe, the USA and Canada live quite happily without it. To be more correct, there dominates the official “ideology” and the only problem of the developed post-modernist society is the maximum and full satisfaction of the consumer society. But we will never get to this point: one may get bored anywhere, but not in our country, even if one wants to, he won’t have the chance. Living in Russia doesn’t let a man with intellectual potential become focused only on himself, limiting himself just to practical domestic problems. Besides, the mentality is different. A Russian can’t be satisfied with athletic shoes and vests – he thinks of Russia all the time. It’s not true about everyone, of course, but about the majority. And it’s a grand and noble quality.
As for ideology, it’s simple – to live for your country and your family and to treat people kindly.