Ideological impact on social behavior: theoretical and methodological aspects (Ending)

This article examines an ambivalent ideology – nationalism, which, on the one hand, causes nationalist sentiments in society, provokes ethnic or racial intolerance, and on the other hand, promotes national unity and solidarity.

The author examines three theoretical and methodological problems related to the consideration of nationalism as a full-fledged ideology, and also highlights the core ideas of this ideology, the most important of which are the nation, organic community, self-determination and identity politics.

In Russian literature, depending on the interpretation of the concept of nation, two main forms of nationalism are distinguished: state and ethnic, and when the so-called “politicization of ethnicity” takes place – the process of significantly increasing the importance of the ethnic factor in politics, nationalism acquires a pronounced political character.

Foreign researchers distinguish liberal, conservative, colonial, expansionist types of nationalism and emphasize that it is the latter that “can turn into an irrational and reactionary symbol serving political leaders to justify armed expansion and wars in the name of the nation”. Expansionist nationalism is correlated, and sometimes even identified with such ideologized constructions as racism and Nazism. In this regard, the article draws a distinction between the ideology of nationalism and racism, shows their points of contact, and also examines the legitimacy of attributing racism to a number of ideologies.

The author also analyzes the problems associated with the historical culmination of the expansionist form of nationalism, which researchers unanimously consider National Socialism, which became widespread in Hitler’s Germany and represented a fusion of an extremely simplified form of the ideology of nationalism – Nazism, characterized by pronounced racial intolerance with separate, uniquely interpreted elements of socialist ideology.

Through a detailed analysis, the author substantiates the conclusion that in its extremely reactionary, primitive, but radical form, being a breeding ground for racism and Nazism, nationalism certainly had a pernicious effect on society – it led to the destruction of social solidarity, the initiation and proliferation of social, political and, very often, military conflicts. This is convincingly proved by the modern geopolitical realities that have developed as a result of the massive and well-organized propaganda of ultranationalist sentiments in the post-Soviet space, the central arena for which was Ukraine, the birthplace of Ukrainian right-wing nationalism and the seat of modern neo-nationalism.

At the same time, nationalism is also quite a progressive and liberating social force if it embodies the spirit of national unity or national independence. Currently, this circumstance is very relevant for the process of recreating Historical Russia – a unique ethnic, geopolitical, cultural, moral and political integrity, which was formed over the centuries as a result of the long residence of peoples and nationalities in the vast Eurasian space. Its cementing principle is a strong statehood, the consolidating thesis about the strengthening of which was permanently not only one of the cornerstones of the political conjuncture of politics, but also a new, reviving national idea, the contours of which are analyzed in the article on extensive historical and scientific material.

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