The author describes existing difficulties with the definition of a national idea. She states that a nation is not related to citizenship only, and the national idea is not a historical core of forming an ethnic group, not a set of bright emotional slogans and not a direction of the society’s development. This is a kind of mission, and, metaphorically saying, a local horizon, which every representative of the nation is able to see and to accept. As for Belarusians, they always aimed to be not worse than the others and to get equality at the international level. But it looks impossible without self-respect and in the conditions of exchange of sovereignty for petty personal privileges.

Categories: Нацыя, Нацыя Беларусы