In modern science, thanks to a number of prominent researchers (like Eric Hobsbawm, Benedict Anderson, Anthony Smith, Ernest Gellner and others), the causes of interethnic conflicts and nationalist sentiments have been studied quite fully. The fundamental basis for the emergence of any nation is the so-called collective national consciousness. This phenomenon represents
awareness by a sufficiently large group of people of their spiritual and blood affinity: common language, traditions, origin, historical past, unity of views on the heroic and tragic moments of history, common aspirations in the future. In modern science there are different views on the phenomenon of the nation, however, according to the most reasonable of them, the nation as such arises only in the modern time of European history, in the era of industrialization and urbanization, when the archaic local identifications of rural communities broke down (and the vast majority of the population lived in them).) and the limited world of mediev althe peasantry suddenly expanded to the limits of the country's borders.
The American historian Eugene Joseph Weber aptly described these processes in his book From Peasant to French. This is how one identifies with a particular nation and, accordingly, opposes others. Already in this fact are the causes of interethnic conflicts. The fact that it is impossible to choose a nation creates a sacred image from it, as if sent by providence. An image for which, as history testifies, millions are ready to die. It is interesting that no one gives their life for the honor of an association, a trade union, and so on. This is worthy only that, according to a person, it is impossible to change what is given from the beginning to the end. The next layer in the foundation, which lays the causes of interethnic conflicts, is the fact that any nation has its own distinctive characteristics. They have a completely different character: mental, religious, linguistic, related to historical memory, and others. The reasons for interethnic conflicts lie in the fact that representatives of at least one of the nations have an anxious feeling for the preservation of their own national attributes: an attempt on the memory of folk heroes, infringement of the language, and so on.
Interestingly, those nations that have been subjected to various kinds of oppression for a long time, which did not havethe possibility of meeting the relevant needs for a long time. So, for example, in modern Europe, such communities are the Basques in Spain and the Flemings in Belgium. The reasons for interethnic conflicts in these regions lie in the long-term dominance in the countries of communities that are foreign to them: the Castilians and Walloons, respectively. Another striking example is the Soviet state. Interethnic conflicts in the USSR came to the surface during perestroika. And interestingly, those who for a long time did not have their own state declared their desire for national realization first of all: the B alts, Ukrainians, Georgians. In turn, the peoples who once had their own state are today not so sensitive to national issues. The British, French, Italians in Europe have long found a common language, "playing enough" with the idea of a nation and adopting other values.
