Since the 19th century, two main currents have coexisted within Russian nationalism. The “state-imperial” tradition is based on a desire for domination over varied spaces and diverse populations at the heart of a vast political entity, defined sometimes as a state-civilization, sometimes as an empire. The second, “ethnocratic” – which we found for example in the pen of the dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn – is based on an ethnic vision of the nation and a desire to favor the interests of the component within the State. Russian (nearly 80% of the population). If President Vladimir Putin advocated partnership with the West during his first mandate, in the 2010s, against a backdrop of tensions with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), he increased references to the State -civilization, sometimes presented as Russia’s own path, or as the guardian of traditional values, while the West has entered a phase of moral decadence. The author, however, puts into perspective citizens’ support for this official nationalism, which has become ever more vibrant since the start of the war with Ukraine.
