Patriotism as a Value Component of the State Policy of Nation-Building (the Experience of the EAEU Countries)

In: Contemporary Europe, Heft 100, S. 38-48

Abstract

This article investigates the experience of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union in the formation and implementation of the ideology of patriotism and the state policy of patriotic education. They are considered in the context of nation-building processes and in conjunction with approaches to formulating a national idea and national (civic) identity. Particular attention is paid to the content and dynamics of the discourse of the authorities. Through a comparative political analysis, the general and special characteristics of the models introduced in the EAEU countries, constants and dominants of discursive practices are revealed. The argumentation of representatives of the top political leadership in their attitudes to the proposed guidelines and priorities of socio-political development through an appeal to the value component taking into account the relationship of internal and external dimensions is shown. The emphasis is on the lack of demand for the ethnocentric model of patriotic discourse and the relevant practices of political actors due to the complex composition of the population of most countries of the Union and other internal and geopolitical circumstances. At the same time in their activities one can reveal the commitment to constructive orientation, the absolutization of sovereignty, and the motivation and positions that impede the adoption of balanced integration decisions. It is suggested that the national idea of Russia cannot be reduced solely to patriotism and that its depoliticization and deideologization cannot be absolutized.