Russian Vision of the ‘All-Russian Nation’

Abstract

The article offers a discussion of the Russian concept of the community to which Russians refer as ‘national’, ‘pan-Russian’, or the ‘threefold nation of Rus’. Focused on the Russian perception of the other two components of such a community, Ukrainians and Belarusians, the study draws on the latest sociological surveys, mainly those conducted by the Levada Centre, a Moscow-based independent research organisation respected for its quality opinion polls. The discussion also presents historically conditioned factors shaping the Russian perception of the two Slavic neighbours, which was greatly dependent on Russian self-awareness in terms of such dimensions as power (dynastic, feudal, autocratic, totalitarian), religion (Orthodoxy), history (Kievan Rus’), state (the supra-ethnic empire of Peter I), nation (state or ethnic nationalism), and culture (high culture characterised by an idea of superiority over societies with incomplete social structure). The significance of individual content elements of these categories was subject to historical evolution during the period under discussion.