№ 1 - 2000
Yan E.
Interpretation of Nation from the State Interpretation and from Ethnic Positions: Contradictions and Similarities

Historical analysis of the state nationalism and of the ethnic one, leads the author to the conclusion that the idea of irreconcilability of different national identities be-comes anachronistic nowadays. In a world of democratic and peace-loving states, he believes, state sovereignty may be extended upward and downward, i.e. it may apply to a usual nation state, to a federative state, to an autonomous partial state and to an autonomous community, to the European Union and, to some extent, to the UNO (or to its Security Council). In such a world, multistage national consciousness becomes real, too. One-dimensional structure of national consciousness is a phenomenon of belligerent society. Society of peace can afford multidimensional national or multina-tional consciousness.