The paper deals with the issues of modern basic values of the population and formation of the new national identity in Belarus under conditions of post-soviet transformation. Under the term of “national identity” the author means the identity of the population of Republic of Belarus that will be adequate its status of a newly independent state acquired after 1991. Special attention is paid to the existing major research approaches to the problem of construction of this national identity. According to the author’s view, both major approaches are not adequate, therefore the author put forward the new (third) approach that goes beyond the discussions on language and national culture and correspond to the concept of plurality of identities. The author describes some paradoxes of national identity as being based on the opposition of “nation” and “people” and corresponded to the western model of “creation of modern nations” within the post-colonial theory that is not applicable to post-Soviet Belarus. All the attempts to apply this model to contemporary Belarus lead the scholars to several “cultural paradoxes” that, however, can be explained within a new approach.
Moscow: ISPR RAS, 2009.