N.M. Karamzin and the Origin of Nationalist Discourse in Russia

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the process of formation of nationalist ideas in Russia by the late 18th and
early 19th centuries. The author considers the conditions and the causes of the rise of these ideas,
their development, as well as different collisions in the adoption of the European idea of nation in
an autocratic empire with an estates system. It is shown that N.M. Karamzin played a crucial role in
the genesis of the Russian nationalist discourse so his philosophical heritage should be estimated not
only with reference to ideology of Russian conservatism but in the context of nationalism.