Are Patriotism and Internationalism Compatible?

Abstract

This article analyses the relationship between patriotism and internationalism. In the context of the pluralism of interpretations in modern discourse, the paper clarifies the concepts of internationalism and patriotism, as well as their correlation with the terms cosmopolitanism, nationalism and anti-patriotism. All these categories are considered here as different types of attitudes of some ethnic communities, nations and peoples towards other ethnic communities, nations and peoples, as a way of nations’ self-positioning in the world’s multi-ethnic cultural space. The authors single out the ideological and the socio-psychological levels of the analysis of patriotism and internationalism. At the ideological level, the categories used to characterize interethnic relations are presented in the form of types of rational political ideology. Here, the subject of interethnic relations is the ethnic community as a whole, as a collective community. At the socio-psychological level, the types of mass socio-political orientations, feelings, behavioural attitudes and stereotypes in the sphere of interethnic relations are determined. Here, the subject of interethnic relations is the individual person as a typical representative of a certain ethnic community. It has been established that patriotism and internationalism are closely interconnected and mediate each other, both in individual and in social consciousness. The attitude towards one’s own Motherland and people determines the attitude towards other countries and peoples, and vice versa, the attitude towards other countries and peoples determines the attitude towards one’s own country and people. The essence of modern Russian patriotism is described as a harmonious balance between constructive humanistic patriotism and humanistic internationalism. In addition, the problem of forming constructive patriotism in the Russian mass consciousness, which should replace the liberal ideologies of cosmopolitanism and globalism, is discussed. These ideologies are viewed as destructive forms of internationalism, which promote the erasure of the socio-cultural identity of nations and deny national patriotism.