Home – Home – Jornals – "Philosophy of Education" 2016 number 5

In the article, on the basis of the dialectical approach, the dynamics of the international and the national in the national politics in Soviet and post-Soviet periods is examined. The discrepancies are noted in the interpretations of the «national» which is not always treated as purely ethnic. The orientation of the national policy of the Soviet Union towards harmonization of the international and the national implied a long process of forming a single nation of the Soviet people. For this purpose, a great contribution was made to the equalization of opportunities of the representatives of different ethnic groups in education and further social mobility. The author notes that in addressing these tasks, the Soviet government gradually paid more attention to the training and education of representatives of the titular ethnic groups, which had become in the national republics transmitters of the policy of the government of the USSR. The policy of «indigenization» in the weakening of the influence of the party in the republics over time was a catalyst of centrifugal forces which led to the growth of ethnic identity. However, despite the assumption made by foreign Sovietologists of the strengthening of the Soviet policy of assimilation, the citizens of the country managed to maintain a balance of ethnic and civil identification, as well as Patriotic attitude to the «small Homeland» and mother tongue, as evidenced by the large number of people of different ethnic groups in the late 80-ies which used native language as a means of communication at home and at work. Nevertheless, the strengthening of ethnocentric attitudes, fueled by ethnic elites in the national republics led to the subsequent «parade of sovereignties» and the development of the concepts of national schools, opposing the national to the international. The author comes to conclusion that the actions in the management of national policies in the post-Soviet space have led to imbalances in inter-ethnic relations, impoverished educational practice and greatly weakened the capacity of the country. Thus, the dynamics of interest in the international cooperation is an objective and positive factor in the further development of the country.