The concept of a nation is very often used in modern political rhetoric. Public statesmen are trying to connect their own image and their aspirations with it. But what exactly is she?
Introduction of definition: nation
First of all, it should be noted that in the modern Russian language there is a whole range of terms similar to the concept of a nation: people, ethnos, nationality. At the same time, the nation itself is an image that has several views on its definition at once. There is also some conflict associated with translations of foreign terms. So, for the Germans, both the people and the nation are folk. Two concepts are united by one term. But in the special English-language literature, the concepts of people and nation are distinguished. The first, by the way, is not quite the same as the people in our understanding. For a Russian-speaking person, a nation is a kind of continuation of the people, its development into a higher category. While the people is more of a legal and biological unity that has existed since ancient times, and the concept of a nation expresses more of a socio-psychological community. It is the awareness of a common historical destiny, commonheroes and tragic moments, the unity of the past and the future turns a people into a nation. This is already something more than just a set of similar characteristics like culture and language (although they are the basis). The development of a nation, according to modern researchers of the issue, at its highest point involves the creation of a state. After all, this is the most effective way to express common national interests through foreign and domestic policy.
Birth of a Nation
In the modern historiography of the issue, there are several currents that differently consider the origins of the nation. However, the most authoritative researchers still attribute the emergence of nations in their modern form to the era of modern times. In addition, it is originally a European phenomenon. The nation is the brainchild of development
capitalist relations and scientific and technological revolution. For the peasant of the Middle Ages, there was no such self-identification and there was no difference between the French and German feudal lords. And for the latter, all the peasants seemed to be a single mass. One of the prominent researchers of our time, Benedict Anderson, created a special concept of "imaginary communities". This implies that the nation is a figment of the human imagination in the grand scheme of things. It arises only when traditional communities (for example, village communities) collapse and new, more global societies emerge. Local identification no longer fits, and the Munich worker, for example, as a result of these processes, begins to feel his commonality withclerk of Dortmund, although they never saw each other. Common symbols are extremely important for the nation - the foundation of this solidarity of its representatives. Often the color of the nation - poets, writers, musicians, historians - is also the creator of these symbols. It is they who form the image of unity in the minds of the inhabitants of a certain territory.
