Patriotism as a moral and legal category, or patriotism as a refuge for villains? Patriotic education of schoolchildren. Church and patriotism

Archpriest Georgy Volkhovsky

Report of the rector of St. Vladimir's Church in Dnepropetrovsk, Archpriest Georgy Volkhovsky, at the V Archangel-Mikhailovsky Philosophical and Theological Readings "Orthodoxy in World Culture"

I.On the importance of the topic

Your Eminence, Eminence, venerable fathers and brethren!

I bring to your enlightened attention a report on a topic that I consider to be extremely important. It is important because without it it is impossible to educate a moral generation or build a worthy state. I'm talking about this.

Each nation has its own, unique in the history of the world, ways. And we, as a people, go our own way, absorbing a number of alien influences, but not repeating the paths of any other people. Therefore, no measures, recipes, programs and ideologies borrowed from anywhere from the outside are inapplicable for the paths of our development, our statehood and our culture.

However, we can say with confidence that we will not be able to create our national "I" without that single condition on which all states were created and are being created. I'm talking about a moral and ethical category that allows the people to self-perceive themselves as a single nation. I'm talking about patriotism.

The words of the new martyr Metropolitan Seraphim Chichagov, spoken at the very beginning of the twentieth century, sound prophetic in our time that our people “have never experienced such a time of decay and corruption of the mental, moral and spiritual ... everything that has been acquired is lost. thousand years of work - knowledge of Christ's teachings and our history, patriotism, strength and wisdom of our spirit, love for our Orthodox faith and the Church, striving for the truth, serious education, love for work, devotion to our Fatherland and the habit of being the master in our home. "

The topic of patriotism has a number of questions that need to be answered. These questions are inspired by the conditions, circumstances and realities of historical life in which you and I find ourselves. So, once attending the dispatch of recruits, young replenishment, built on the parade ground in ranks and ranks, everyone heard a question that was clearly voiced in response to the speeches of representatives of the state administration. In response to the call to love and defend our Ukraine, the question was raised from the ranks: “Whom to love? Whom to protect? These ... ". Truly, social being here also determines social consciousness! The question remained unanswered. Everyone just pretended not to be heard.

But really. Once they went into battle for Faith, Tsar and Fatherland, then for Comrade Lenin, then Comrade for Stalin ... And now, if need be, for whom or for what? For the Motherland, torn apart by parties and religions? For the land you don’t have? For businesses that don't belong to you? For the president or for the prime minister? Or maybe, as it was already: "For food" ...

Among these questions, there are the following: "Do you need to love your Fatherland, and if so, why do you need to love it?" "Do I need to protect my patronymic, and if necessary, who and what to protect?" "What would happen to our Fatherland if, for example, with the present morality, 1941 was repeated?" "Can there be guarantees of freedom and interests of our people without patriotism, and can there be true freedom, without love for our Fatherland?" "How did our ancestors understand patriotism, and are we, their descendants, the same patriots?" Etc.

And if you think about what should be the basis of patriotism? Either it is love for God and one's people, or is it a national identity with blood ties, or a race, or ideology, or family ties, or something related to property ... What underlies such patriotism, then it may degenerate. If, for example, nationality is the basis, then it will degenerate into nationalism. If the nation - to Nazism. If race - into racism, etc. Thinking about this, questions arise concerning the unity of the people of Ukraine. Is the word "patriotism" and its content the same, understand the peoples and nations inhabiting Ukraine: those who identify themselves with a Ukrainian, or a Russian, or a Tatar, or a Jew, or a gypsy ...?.

Do representatives of different religions and denominations understand patriotism in the same way? For example, an Orthodox and Protestant doing alternative military service. Or a Muslim and a Jew. Will an adherent of Buddhism, Krishnaism, Hinduism or other Eastern cults begin and how will our Motherland be defended?

Parties of different shades and orientations also understand patriotism in different ways. Here patriotism, on the one hand, is often understood not as the common people of Ukraine themselves understand it, but as the creators and leaders of parties and movements understand it. On the other hand, patriotism is often understood here, first of all, the interests of the ruling, oligarchic class.

There are also extremes. In these extremes, there are people who share the words of human rights activist Sergei Kovalev that "patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels." Probably, obeying this, hiding behind a false desire for the truth, in recent years, practically everything that was the basis of patriotism in the past is being revised. In any human feat, or the feat of an entire people, they try to see something that vulgarizes this feat and turns it into nothing. Ideals are being destroyed in us, without which the nation loses its face. At the same time, alien ideals are being imposed. Here's one example. Looking at modern documentaries in the West, or ours, imitating the West, about the war of 1941-1945, you learn that this was not the Great Patriotic War for us, and that victory in it was won thanks to America ?! And those who fell fighting for the Motherland, following the logic of Kovalev, are simply "scoundrels".

Obviously, it is necessary to dwell in more detail on the following. Quite often, the word "patriotism" means, first of all, the national component. Language and national traditions are the corresponding attributes of such an understanding. With such "patriotism", as a rule, there is resentment for the humiliation of national pride. In Ukraine, for example, this is associated with the word "Moskal". There is also an enemy who allegedly encroaches on the attributes of national culture and everyday life. For example, for Ukraine, these are “the imperial ambitions of the Kremlin and its allies,“ prodants ”, represented by the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate, especially those who speak Russian.

As a rule, such “patriotism”, which is based on nationality, is just a banal nationalism, about which Ivan Ilyin wrote in 1932: “The spiritual essence of patriotism remains almost always beyond the threshold of their consciousness. Then love for the homeland lives in souls in the form of an unreasonable, objectively indefinite inclination, which either completely freezes and loses its strength until there is proper irritation (in times of peace, in an era of quiet life), then it flares up with a blind and unreasonable passion, a fire awakened, frightened and a hardened instinct capable of drowning out the voice of conscience in the soul, and a sense of proportion and justice, and even the demands of elementary meaning. Then patriotism turns out to be a blind affect that shares the fate of all blind and spiritually unenlightened affects: it imperceptibly degenerates and becomes an evil and predatory passion - contemptuous pride, violent and aggressive hatred; and then it turns out that the "patriot" and "nationalist" himself is experiencing not a creative upsurge, but a temporary bitterness and, perhaps, even brutality. It turns out that it is not love for the homeland that lives in the heart of a person, but a strange and dangerous mixture of militant chauvinism and stupid national conceit, or a blind addiction to everyday trifles and a hypocritical “great-power” pathos, behind which personal or class self-interest is often hidden. "

Everybody is often called upon to support this "nationalism". even religion. This is where the substitution takes place. Substitution in that. that patriotism does not come from the essence of faith, being an organic part of spiritual and moral self-awareness, but faith is used by the national idea as a component of it. For example, for Ukraine, this is the UOC of the Kyivan Patriarchate. So dominating over faith "national-patriotism", using the religious-ideological component as an attribute, degenerates into national arrogance. As for other peoples, it degenerated in its time into Zionism or Nazism.

As a rule, the ideology of patriotism also includes a historical component. History itself is here one of the main parts of the justification of patriotism. However, the national consciousness often selects from history only that which can be interpreted exclusively from the national perspective.

To this should be added the internal enemies of true patriotism, who, destroying or replacing true patriotism, according to Ivan Ilyin, “will not rest until they succeed in conquering ... the people through the subtle infiltration of their soul and will, in order to instill in them under under the guise of "tolerance" - godlessness, under the guise of "republic" - obedience to behind-the-scenes beckons and under the guise of "democracy" - national depersonalization. " The ultimate goal of this "inconspicuous infiltration" is a radical change in the people's self-consciousness, the suppression of its religious, moral, ideological and ideological immunity, the paralysis of the instinct of self-preservation, on which patriotism is based, and, as a result, the disappearance of the people as an independent, catholic spiritual organism.

Therefore, it seems to me that today the most important task should be the protection of our spirituality, morality, strengthening the traditional self-consciousness of the people and its historically formed patriotic worldview. Let me emphasize: historically established, not introduced.

Probably, one could endlessly talk about these issues. I believe that the correct answer to them also determines who we, our children, will be, and in what state will we have to live? Or maybe you will have to dissolve in the turbulent human sea of ​​nations, peoples, nationalities, religions and parties?

ΙΙ. Biblical meaning and content of patriotism

Speaking about patriotism, one should, first of all, say about its foundation, about its meaning and content, and about the spirit that feeds on patriotism. For our people, for almost a whole millennium, it was the spirit of Orthodoxy, which helped it to survive, to withstand the most difficult historical cataclysms. The spirit of Orthodoxy has always been nourished from the inexhaustible source of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church.

It is Scripture that reveals for us the love inherent in man by God for his faith, for his Motherland and for his people. The very first lines of the Bible literally speak about this: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ..." (Gen. 1.1). How can a person not love what God Himself created with love ?! And then we read: "And God created man in his own image ..." (Genesis 1.27). How can you not love the one who bears the image of God? “And the Lord God took the man whom he had created, and placed him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate it and keep it” (Gen. 2.15). The Garden of Eden is the name of the first homeland of all mankind.

In this historical perspective, in relation to the creation of the universe and man, patriotism can be called cosmopolitanism, and universalism, and "universality" ... Then, as the Bible writes, “In all the earth there was one language and one dialect” (Gen. 11.1). This could be preserved if all the people inhabiting the earth were filled with the same Spirit.

However, the Fall divided people. The proud construction of the Tower of Babel ended with “The Lord confused the tongue of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the whole earth” (Gen. 11.9). And they settled, as the Bible writes, the nations "According to their families, according to their tongues, in their lands, among their peoples ... the nations were spread on the earth after the flood" (Gen. 10.20-31). It shows how the Lord Himself gives each people their land and their language.

Using the example of Abraham, we see how the Lord leads him out of the pagan city of Ur of the Chaldees in order to give him a land that will belong only to him and his offspring. “And the Lord said to Abraham: Get out of your land, from your kindred, and from your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you; and I will make a great nation out of you, and I will bless you ”(Genesis 12: 1, 2). This was the beginning of what we call Fatherland. And this earthly Fatherland was to become a prototype of that heavenly Fatherland, which he lost by sin, but man must attain through righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, love for one's earthly Motherland is a prototype of love for the Heavenly Motherland, for which man was created. This is the meaning and content of patriotism. This is also the spiritual and historical, patriotic principles of love for one's Motherland! The Lord Himself lays the foundation for these principles.

The cosmopolitanism of the period of the creation of the world, after the Fall, of course, loses its significance. The "unity of the human race", which proclaims cosmopolitanism, can exist only when everyone professes one faith in the One God and is filled with one Spirit. In a corrupted and sinful world, he is not only unattainable, but in his essence he is deceitful and destructive, because, as it is written in the Gospel, "Unfaithful in small things, unfaithful in many things" (Luke 16.10). Unfaithful to his people, how will he be loyal to all the peoples of the Earth? Or, somewhat paraphrasing the words of the holy Apostle John the Theologian that “not who loves his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see? ”(1 John 4:20), without sinning, let us say: He who does not love the earthly Motherland, which he sees, how can he love the Motherland of Heaven, the Kingdom of Heaven, which he does not see? No way! How can you be a cosmopolitan without being a patriot of your small homeland? No way. How can you take care of the whole world and consider the whole world your homeland, if your homeland, like the Garden of Eden, could not love "Cultivate and store"? In the cosmopolitanism of a sinful man, the very prototype of the heavenly Fatherland disappears.

To this it should be added that in a sin-perverted religious understanding, the words of the Lord to Abraham: “Look to the north and south, and to the east and west; for all the land that you see, I will give you and your offspring forever ”(Genesis 13:14, 15), can be cosmopolitanly understood as the possession of the whole earth by one people.

ΙΙΙ. The biblical roots of patriotism

In general, the entire Old Testament, also professed by Jews and Muslims, speaks of patriotism. Much has been written about the Old Testament righteous, who for their faith, their people and their native land, at one time crushed the power of the enemy.

When Moses sacrifices himself, renounces his pleasantly furnished life and willingly goes to suffer with his people, truly is the feat of a patriot. Moses dooms himself to all the hardships and difficulties not only because of a simple feeling of kinship, but mainly because of his love for God and his people. “By faith Moses, having come to age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and rather wanted to suffer with the people of God, than to have temporary sinful pleasure and reproach of Christ, he considered more wealth for himself than Egyptian treasures; for he looked to reward ”(Heb. 11:24 ..). The patriotic impulse of Moses is shocking when he prayed to God to erase him from the book of life, but not to deprive the people of Israel of His favor: “Forgive their sin, but if not, blot me out of your book, in which you have written” (Ex. 32.32).

In addition to Moses, there were many in the Old Testament who could safely be called patriots. This is Joshua too. These are the judges of Israel who were after Moses: Gideon, with three hundred of his chosen husbands, who approached a large army of hostility, which he brought to confusion and put to flight. This is Barak, Samson, Jephthah. These are King David, who defeated the giant Goliath, and the prophet Samuel, who by prayer asked God for victory for the Jews over the Philistines. They "They were strong in war, drove away the strangers' regiments" (Heb. 11:24). The Maccabees brothers, their mother and teacher Eleazar, were also patriots. The prophets can also be called patriots: Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel ...

Whichever of the Old Testament righteous we take, their patriotism clearly shows, firstly, love for God and standing in faith, and, secondly, love for their people and the land that the Lord gave them. The commandment also speaks about this: "Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind ... love thy neighbor as thyself" (Mark 12:30, 31; Lev.19.18). Without these fundamental principles, laid down and manifested by God Himself, there is and cannot be true patriotism. True patriotism is, first of all, patriotism of faith, patriotism of spirit.

“Something taken by itself, separated from the spirit,” wrote Ivan Ilyin, “neither the territory, nor the climate, nor the geographical setting, and the spatial range - the residence of people, nor racial origin, nor the usual way of life, nor the economic structure, nor the language , nor formal citizenship - nothing constitutes the homeland, does not replace it and is not loved by patriotic love ... None of these living conditions, taken by itself! cannot show a person his homeland: for the homeland is something of the spirit and for the spirit. " Wonderful words!

With such patriotism, the Lord Himself helps. Again the biblical quote: “You go against me with sword and spear and shield, and I go against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel. which you reviled ”(1 Sam.17.45). David said this to Goliath before the fight. A lot has been said with these words. First, when he says “in the name of the Lord,” David thereby speaks for faith, because it is faith in the Lord. Secondly, saying “the God of armies”, David affirms the protection of God over the defenders of the faith and the Motherland.

Further David says: "And the whole host will know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear, for this is the war of the Lord, and He will deliver you into our hands" (1 Samuel 17:46). So, this is the "war of the Lord", the war of God in defense of the faith and the Motherland, the war for the reproach of those who support this faith. Isn't this a blessing of patriotism?

But more than that, the Lord Himself participates in the war on the side of the defenders of the faith and native land. “When you go to war against your enemy and you see horses and chariots and people who are sick than yours, then do not fear them, for the Lord your God is with you ... for the Lord your God goes with you to fight for you with your enemies yours and save you ”(Deut.20.1.4). But by the way, when the Lord is fighting, Protestants have an alternative service.

Not only the Lord fights, but also the angelic army fully armed, ready to enter into earthly warfare together with the defenders of the faith and the Fatherland: “In the morning the servant of the man of God got up and went out; and behold an army round about the city, and horses and chariots. And his servant said to him (Elisha - author): Alas! My lord, what are we to do? And he said: Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are greater than those. who are with them. And Elisha prayed and said: Lord! Open his eyes so he can see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw, and behold, the whole mountain was filled with horses and chariots of fire around Elisha ”(4 Kings 6.15-17).

True patriotism is not just spiritual, it is always spiritually connected with the forefathers and their spiritual heritage. It fosters patriotism. Spiritual, namely spiritual, historical roots of faith always nourish patriotism. The following speaks about how patriotism treats its history with care. The entire Old Testament, in practice, is the history of the Jewish people, in which everything is very scrupulously collected and preserved, from names and dates to events and facts. There are even books with the general title Chronicles, which means the Chronicle. Hence, a person who rejects his own spiritual heritage cannot be a patriot.

This heritage was embodied not only in the faith of the ancestors, but also in the word "father" combined with this faith. Hence the Fatherland. Hence, the patronymic cannot be a true patriot who does not fulfill the commandment of God "Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land that the Lord your God has given you" (Deut.5.16), does not fulfill the covenants of his fathers and forefathers, or simply does not consider it necessary to simply remain in obedience to them. After all, how will you love the history of your fatherland and your people if you ignore your historical roots in your own father? No way.

He cannot be a patriot who does not preserve and does not support what the Motherland begins with - his family. And that's true. How can you be a patriot of an entire people if you do not support your small and dear? The apostle Paul wrote about it in these words, saying that who “If he has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to honor their family and pay tribute to their parents: for this is pleasing to God ... If someone does not care about his own people and especially about his family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5.4. ,eight).

Actually, this also applies to the number of children in the family. The words “children” or “sons” in the Bible designate not only direct descendants of a person, but also his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, that is, subsequent generations. Numerous offspring means joy and happiness. It is considered a blessing from God: “This is the inheritance from the Lord: children; His reward is the fruit of the womb. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Blessed is the man who filled his quiver with them! They will not be ashamed when they speak to their enemies ”(Ps. 126.3). In a childless marriage, it is God's punishment. A true patriot will try with his heritage to increase the wealth of the people to which he belongs and who loves, so that he does not die out, but “He multiplied and multiplied and filled the earth, and possessed it” (Genesis 1.28).

In fact, with the ten commandments, the Bible affirms the signs of true patriotism. So, for example, a thief and a liar cannot be a true patriot. How can you say that you love your people if you rob them and lie to them?

Centuries passed, but the Lord did not change. "God is not a man, so that He may change" (Num. 23.19). "God has no change and not a shadow of change" (James 1.17) and if so, will God, who helped patriots in the Old Testament, change and teach differently in the time of the New Testament? No way.

IV. New Testament Foundations of Patriotism

Christians, like the prophet David, who wrote about himself: “I am a stranger on earth” (Ps. 118.19), also consider themselves, along with the Apostle Paul, “strangers and strangers on earth; for those who say so show that they are looking for a heavenly fatherland ”(Heb. 11:13). Christians “have that fatherland in their thoughts,” as the apostle writes further, “from which they came” (Heb. 11:15). Therefore, every Christian, carrying in his heart “the images of heaven” (Hebrews 9.23), sees in the earthly Fatherland a prototype of the Kingdom of God, the Fatherland of Heaven, goes through the course that lies before him, looking at the ruler and perfecter of faith, Jesus Christ, Who with His whole life showed love and faithfulness to His Kingdom.

St. John of Kronstadt spoke about these foundations of patriotism as follows: "The earthly Fatherland with its Church is the threshold of the Heavenly Fatherland, therefore love it fervently and be ready to lay down your soul for it in order to inherit eternal life."

“Genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David. Son of Abraham ... "(Matthew 1.1). This is how the Gospel of Matthew begins. Here is the historical chronicle "of all generations from Abraham to David ... and from David to the migration to Babylon ... and from the migration to Babylon to Christ" (Matthew 1.17). carefully preserved and delivered to us. This is nothing more than the spiritual heritage of patriotism, the very historical roots that spiritually feed on faith, love for God and his people.

The Gospel of John, literally also from the first words speaking about the incarnation of the Word, lays the foundation for the New Testament foundation of patriotism: "He came to his own ..." (John 1.11). Like this. Loving and saving everyone, the Lord came "to his own."

Of course, He came “to do good to all,” as the Apostle Paul writes, “but especially to his own by faith” (Gal. 6.10). He came “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24), in order to start from small things, to save even more, “through the foolishness of preaching to save the believers” (1 Cor. 1:21) in Him.

And more than that. Announcing the secrets of the Kingdom of God to “his own” first, He tried to gather them around Him, “like a bird gathers its chicks under its wings” (Mer 23-37). When they did not want this, then He, His Holiness, grieved and wept over their blindness and the destruction prepared for them for themselves (Luke 19.41-43). Here, in the best possible way, is revealed what was written above, that it is impossible to be a patriot of everyone and everything at once, without being a patriot of one's own.

Actually, unlike the first Adam, the whole earthly life of the God-man Christ is a single impulse of faith, acting by love. An outburst of endless love for His Heavenly Kingdom, the true Fatherland, for the good news of which He accepted death on the Cross.

Likewise, John the Baptist, who suffered death by the sword. He endured, first, for faith, for loyalty to the moral Law of God, which is incompatible with vice. And, secondly, for the people who tried to save them from the corrupting, lustful royal temptation.

Apostle Simon, nicknamed the Zealot, also arouses some interest. Zealot means jealous. As the Biblical Encyclopedia explains, at the time of Christ, the zealots "were jealous of external freedom, preached that the people should not pay tribute to Caesar ... provoked revolts and indignations of the Jews against the Romans." Actually, these were the patriots of their people and the zealots of their faith. The same zealot for faith and love for the Lord was Simon, whom the Lord called to the apostolic ministry and preaching the Kingdom of God, thereby blessing patriotism in the person of this apostle.

Like the Old Testament Moses, the holy Apostle Paul said with sorrow that “he himself would like to be excommunicated from Christ for my brothers, relatives of me in the flesh, that is, the Israelites” (Rom. 9.3). The holy Apostle John the Theologian echoes him: “We know love in this, that the Lord laid down his life for us: and we must lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3.16).

The Lord Jesus Christ gives the foundation of patriotism the content that distinguishes it from nationalism. Notice that the Lord did not regard anyone as His enemy. He loves everyone, prays for everyone, suffers for everyone, and saves everyone. Here are the roots of the difference between Orthodox patriotism and nationalism. The Orthodox patriot loves the Lord, his homeland and his people, and the nationalist hates more those whom he considers the enemy of his nation. In Orthodoxy, patriotism stems from faith, in nationalism - from nationality. Orthodox patriotism always has the Spirit of Christ in it. True patriotism of faith is always filled with the Spirit of love. “Love your enemies (Matthew 5.44). Bless those who persecute you; bless, not curse ”(Rom. 12.14.15). Nationalism, in its essence, is always spiritless or pseudo-spiritual. This is a big, fundamental difference. “We, who are looking for ways of spiritual renewal, cannot be indifferent to what kind of patriotism we assert and what nationalism we inculcate.” This is Ivan Ilyin again.

V. Patriotism in our Orthodox history

Patriotism is based on a strict hierarchy of spiritual values ​​and an awareness of spiritual self-determination. “At the heart of patriotism,” wrote Ivan Ilyin, “is an act of spiritual self-determination. Patriotism can and will live only in the soul for which there is something sacred on earth, who experienced the objectivity and unconditional dignity of this sacred by living experience - and recognized it in the shrines of its people. "

All the best from Christ's teaching of love has absorbed Orthodoxy, where the patriotism of our Orthodox people for centuries has been based on a fundamental idea that presupposes the understanding of life as a religious duty, as a universal joint service to the evangelical ideals of good, truth, love, mercy, sacrifice and compassion. According to this worldview, the goal of the patriotic aspirations of an individual in his personal life, the main task and meaning of both marital family life and public, public service, is the feasible embodiment of those high spiritual principles, the permanent guardian of which has been from century to century Orthodox Church

Actually, the whole history of the Orthodox Church is the history of patriotism of faith, where patriotism is not just love for one's people, which constitutes in us only natural affection, but, above all, a highly moral feeling, Christian virtue.

Orthodox patriotism is not at all connected with nationality or territory. "The sign of race and blood," wrote Ivan Ilyin, "does not resolve the question of the Motherland: for example, an Armenian can be a Russian patriot." Hence, the patriotism of the Russian people, to which, by the way, the Orthodox people of Ukraine also belongs, is conditioned not by nationality, but by the messianic significance of preserving the fullness and purity of the Orthodox faith. This is the patriotism of faith and the saving teaching of Christ.

The history of the Church of Christ abounds in the names of holy warriors-patriots. It is enough to recall only one George the Victorious, who is the patron saint of Orthodox soldiers.

Likewise, the system of values ​​of Holy Russia has created all the conditions for higher spiritual self-determination, and hence the mature patriotism of our people. Based on this value system, our people realized their spiritual strength and power, health, a sense of pride and satisfaction from their way of life and thought.

Let us turn to the history of Russian holiness. All estates showed the world the patriotism of our people. The noble princes Boris and Gleb, the noble grand dukes Mstislav of Kiev, Alexander Nevsky, Rostislav of Kiev, the martyr prince Mikhail of Chernigov, the noble prince Mstislav the Brave, the Monks Peresvet and Ilya Muromets, the Monks Titus, Fyodor of Ostrozhsky, unbroken by everyone ... transfer. In the history of our Fatherland, everywhere we see traces of military valor and civic courage left by our glorious ancestors.

When in 1380 the Grand Duke Demetrius of Donskoy came to the Monk Sergius to ask for a blessing for the battle with the Tatars, who at that time were masters of Russia, the Monk Sergius did not immediately agree to give this blessing. In any case, purely political motives, the desire to see Russia independent from the Tatars and go to war for this, were completely alien to him. He told the prince like this: “First, go to the Tatars with righteousness and obedience, as you should submit to the Horde king according to your position. And Scripture teaches that if such enemies want honor and glory from us, we will give them; if they want gold and silver, we will give this too; but for the name of Christ, for the Orthodox faith, it is fitting to lay down a soul and shed blood. And you, lord, give them honor, and gold, and silver, and God will not allow them to overcome us. He will exalt you, seeing your humility, and will bring down their unyielding pride. "

Some time later, blessing the prince for the battle with the Tatars, he said: “Go! The God of righteousness will grant you victory and preserve you for eternal glory, and for many of your ascetics crowns of martyrs are ready. Go boldly, prince, and hope for God's help ... ".

Another example of a true son of the holy Orthodox Church. It is taken from the story of Mikhail Hrushevsky. Here is the speech of hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky (I am quoting from the original): “Having already proved, I’m not mischievous at once, now I’ll prove it by naming it, saying Khmelnitsky - Visvol for captivity, the Russian people hang out! Before I have fought for my Skoda i, I am false, now I will fight for our Orthodox Bipy. Help between all the people in the world (! -Avt.) ... Do not become a leg of a common prince in Ukraine, but a gentry ... Maliy I am an insignificant person, ale from the will of God, becoming an autocrat and autocrat Russian "(History of Ukraine.Kiyiv- Lviv, 1913, p. 303).

So, true patriotism is only true when, relying on its spiritual heritage, it confesses and stands on the defense of the faith of Christ, on the defense of the highest interests of its people and its Motherland, where the highest interest is the salvation of the human soul, for which the Lord suffered on the Cross and Our Savior Jesus Christ.

I want to finish my report with the words of a true patriot of our faith, the late Metropolitan John (Snychev), addressed to each of us: managed to sell) orders of the Great Patriotic War, have before God the right of succession to the feats of their ancestors. We, indifferently hurrying past, are deprived of such a right until we restore the trampled one and remember the forgotten ... One has only to start, and the Almighty God will give us strength for spiritual warfare, pure life and good deeds! May it be so. Amen".

In the scientific literature, there are various classifications of patriotism, its types and forms are distinguished.

One of the grounds for elucidating the typologies of patriotism can be the concepts of big and small homeland, conciliarity, spirituality, service to the Fatherland, defense of the Motherland, which are widespread among the people. great homeland earlier it meant the Russian Empire, later - the Soviet Union, Russia, the Russian Federation. Small Motherland- province (later - region, territory, national republic) or county (district), city, village, farm, etc. In accordance with this basis, the types of patriotism include: state, Russian national, national, civil, local or regional, etc. All these types of patriotism are interconnected, but each of them reveals in it (patriotism) something of its own, special.

State patriotism is associated, first of all, with the single and highest goal of each person, collective and society as a whole; the interests of the state and national security are a priority principle in the system "personality - collective - society - state". The political regulators of state patriotism are the concept of the state, statism, and the main principle that supports and develops national culture, protects national independence and state territorial integrity is the principle of statehood. The normativeness of patriotism is the social norms that regulate the behavior of a person in society, his attitude towards other people, towards society, the state and towards himself. Their implementation is ensured by the power of both public opinion, internal conviction based on the ideas about its own security and the possibility of reproduction accepted in this society, and by coercion from the state, based on legal regulators.

State patriotism presupposes that Russians have a common interest in cohesion and development, a general goal of strengthening the state, confidence that spiritual solidarity and justice prevail within it, and a sense of responsibility for the fate of the Fatherland. For the development of this type of patriotism, knowledge of the history of the Fatherland, the assertion in the legal consciousness of the people of the idea of ​​the state, of their Motherland is important; community of interests and a common determination to defend its interests; the existence of an established system of control over the observance of the rights of citizens and, at the same time, control over the fulfillment by citizens of their obligations to society. It is in this connection that the degree of public confidence in the authorities increases.

Russian national patriotism to a greater extent associated with the emotional world of a person. Its spiritual and moral basis is the concept of "Fatherland" (paternal home) and "Motherland" (bosom of birth). They reveal the spiritual basis of patriotism, the content of the patriotic experience of the people, and its values. Taken together, the Fatherland and the Motherland accumulate ideas about the people as a family living in a multi-ethnic and single political space. Russian patriotism, reflecting and protecting the interests of the people, society and orienting individuals in their civil behavior to comply with legal norms, stimulates them at the same time to consolidate through the development of patriotic experience, which is enshrined in moral norms, customs, traditions, folklore, values ​​of the life world developed by the people , its culture. Modern Russia needs patriotic traditions and values ​​to be assimilated by the population and become individual and group behavioral programs.

A Russian patriot is a person who has connected his fate with the fate of his people, with its age-old traditions, who believes in Russia, is connected with it spiritually, morally and emotionally, building his behavior in accordance with Russia, its future and present.

National(Russian, Tatar, Bashkir, etc.) patriotism is based on its national culture, i.e.

preserves the spiritual content of past social and political forms. It should awaken a feeling of love for the Motherland, national pride, the spirit of the people and contribute to the development of national feelings and national character, traditions, and form a sense of high moral responsibility.

Local, regional patriotism manifests itself in love for the surrounding nature, their small homeland, economic work, family and loved ones, the spiritual culture of their people. Natural, historical, blood and everyday ties should become the subject of patriotic love as elements of the spirit of their ancestors and their people. Children learn the concepts of "Motherland" (the bosom of birth), "Fatherland" (father's house) in early childhood through the world around them.

In the conditions of modern Russia, in the period of its entry into the processes of globalization, a special place is occupied by civil patriotism , which is based on love for the Motherland on its national scale, national and legal identity, civic morality: pride in your family, home, your people, courtyard, sports club, city, region, country.

Ivan Ilyin wrote: “In order to find your homeland and merge with it with feeling, and will, and life, you need to live in spirit and take care of it in yourself; and, further, it is necessary to realize in oneself a patriotic self-awareness, or at least to “feel” correctly oneself and one's people in spirit. You must truly feel your spiritual life and the spiritual life of your people and creatively assert yourself in the forces and means of this latter, i.e., for example, to accept the Russian language, Russian history, the Russian state, Russian song, Russian legal consciousness, Russian historical outlook, etc. .d. as their own. This means to establish between oneself and one's people similarity, communication, interaction and community in spirit; recognize that the creators and creatures of his spiritual culture are my leaders and my achievements. My path to spirit is the path of my homeland; her ascent to spirit and God is my ascent. For I am identical with her and inseparable from her in spiritual life. "

Civil patriotism is based on subconscious aspirations and impulses, which are rooted in the spirit of the people, national instinct, the desire for creativity, for active social activity.

Civil patriotism reflects a peculiar mechanism of interaction between a person, a team, society and the state; he synthesizes the rest of the varieties of patriotism and is associated precisely with the protection of his national and cultural identity. At present, the need for a patriotic orientation of education, teaching young people the civilized norms of relationships in issues affecting the interests of a person, collective, society, state and requiring binding decisions for all in the space of civil society institutions has clearly emerged.

Patriotism as a social phenomenon has, in addition to its classical manifestation, not only other types, but also forms. In his work "The concept of patriotism: an essay on the sociology of knowledge" A.N. Malinkin identifies the following forms according to the main essential feature of patriotism (love for the homeland): affective patriotism, patriotic indifferenceism, antipatriotism, false antipatriotism, pseudo patriotism, patriotic nihilism, counterpatriotism.

Affective patriotism- patriotism as a "social emotion", a manifestation of affects and passions, which forms a superficial, peripheral layer of individual, group and social consciousness. Affective patriotism is an important component of many authoritarian-oriented political ideologies, for example, racist, nationalist-extremist, religious-fundamentalist, etc. Most of them are not concerned with the search for the truth (they "know" it).

Patriotic indifference- an indifferent, indifferent attitude towards the homeland, or even the absence of a definite attitude towards it at all, oblivion of the homeland - its disappearance from the field of objects of possible attention.

Antipatriotism- hatred of the homeland, as a rule, is the result of a natural protest reaction of a person who seeks to escape from the established life world, but is temporarily unable to do so (for example, by changing socio-economic conditions, migration or emigration). A person either comes to terms with the environment, perceived by him as a "vicious circle", "trap", etc., or continues to struggle with it, seeking to neutralize the influence of an alien or hostile social environment.

False antipatriotism- ardent and jealous love for the homeland ("I love my homeland, but with a strange love"), hidden most often under the national "self-flagellation."

Pseudo-patriotism (or pseudo-patriotism)- hatred and contempt for the homeland.

There are many transitional forms between the two extreme forms of patriotism and antipatriotism.

Patriotic nihilism- this is the denial of the positive value of the homeland as such, that is, the denial of the special and irreplaceable place of the homeland in the system of human values. The symptoms of patriotic nihilism testify to irreversible changes in the emotional constitution and mentality of a person, which, in principle, exclude the revival of love for the motherland. Patriotic nihilism is expressed in blind worship of everything foreign, fanatical devotion to any foreign or ancient culture, etc. The main manifestations of patriotic nihilism are humanitarianism and cosmopolitanism.

Humanitarianism and cosmopolitanism can be classified as social phenomena, inherently necessary associated with patriotism, but having an opposite value vector.

Humanitarianism- abstract love for everything that in the eyes of the lover has a human face (even if it is the face of a “man's friend” - a dog, a cat, etc.). Humanitarianism is indifferent to the racial, national, ethnic, cultural and other belonging of a person, to specific groups, since it is based on the limited and historically obsolete idea of ​​the equality of the nature of all people (the rational essence of man), as well as a more than ambiguous idea " universal human values.

Cosmopolitanism- the mentality of individual selfish alienation from the homeland and cynical indifference towards it.

For the cosmopolitan, love for the fatherland is either negligibly weak or has atrophied altogether. The cosmopolitan considers himself a "citizen of the world", declares his involvement in a community of a higher order and significance (to the whole world, humanity), but the objectively higher value of this community (in itself, of course, not illusory) for the cosmopolitan is not an end in itself, not an object of love and active, sacrificial service, but only a means - the basis and reason for an arrogant, contemptuous attitude towards one's people and native country.

The opposite of the phenomenon of cosmopolitanism is the concept planetarism as a supranational consciousness of belonging to the human community on planet Earth, a feeling of love for all living and all living things on it and solidarity with them, willingness to actively and sacrificially serve them. This positive feeling and consciousness is necessarily based on patriotism, which naturally outgrows its local and national boundaries.

A special - political and ideological - kind of cosmopolitanism is internationalism, in the classical Marxist form, regarded as social-class internationalism - the internationalism of the capitalists and the working class. Since proletarian internationalism puts class interests (that is, political and economic) above the interests of national (primarily national-state), and therefore, above the interests of the fatherland, to the extent that it denies patriotism. It is another matter that for the majority of the peoples of the USSR, but especially for the Russian people, "real internationalism" meant in practice the perception of representatives of other states, nations, races, ethnic groups as equals, respect for their national dignity and original culture; the absence of national chauvinism - great-power or based on the chosenness of God and the special mission of some people; sacrificial "international assistance" - military, economic and cultural (in the field of education and science), as well as a number of other positive features coming from the depths of the healthy nationalism of these peoples.

Nationalism- a concept that received a perverted interpretation in the Soviet period, in fact it was identified with manifestations of "national chauvinism", "national extremism" and other deviations in national consciousness. In reality, nationalism personifies love for the original spirit of its people, developing into national identity, preserving and creating a national way of life. Taking into account the existing post-Soviet realities, the discrediting of the term “nationalism” in the public consciousness, it should be recognized that there is no concept in our vocabulary that would adequately reflect the positive potential of patriotism.

Counterpatriotism- this is love for the ideal (utopian) image of the homeland, which turns into jealousy or hatred when faced with the homeland, given in the form of a social reality that does not correspond to the ideal (utopian) image. Counter-patriotism is characterized by a clearly conscious distinction between “homeland” (there is a warm feeling for it) and “those who speak and act on its behalf” (a persistent hostility or hatred arises towards them).

It should be emphasized that various trends of perverse patriotism suggest that patriotism be seen as something that should be “overcome” as something base (an instinctive attachment that goes back to the territorial instinct of animals), or “outlived” as an age-related phenomenon, or “rejected” as a conservative isolationist tendency , is a deep delusion. Love for the fatherland as an "eternal" social phenomenon and enduring human value does not isolate from the world, but just opens the world in its true light: it allows us to see the planet Earth not as internally indifferent, and therefore not capable of development, universal human unity, but as a fruitful unity development-oriented diversity.

The existing classifications of patriotism into types and forms, partially reflected above, make it possible to objectively and diversifiedly identify objective manifestations of patriotism at the social and individual level, in a systemic form reflect a complex picture of the functioning of patriotism in the space of public consciousness.

Questions to control the ownership of competencies:

1. What are the ideas of I.А. Ilyin can be developed in relation to modern Russia?

2. Summarize in the form of a diagram the main directions of understanding of patriotism in the scientific literature, identify their interrelationships.

3. Highlight the qualities of a person that characterize his civil-patriotic sphere and fill in the table:

4. Justify what types of patriotism are most acceptable for Russia in the context of globalization.

5. Describe the manifestations of state and personal patriotism in modern social practice.

6. Determine what the patriotic activity of the student may be during his studies at the university.

Literature:

1. Efimov V.F. Historiosophical aspects of Russian patriotism // SOTIS-social technologies, research. - 2008. - No. 4. - S. 33-42.

2. Zapesotsky A.S. Dmitry Likhachev on morality, freedom and patriotism // Additional education and upbringing. - 2008. - No. 6. - P.3-8.

3. Ivanova S.Yu., Lutovinov V.I. Contemporary Russian patriotism. - Rostov n / a: Publishing house of the SSC RAS, 2008. - 320s.

4. Malgin E.L. On the relationship between the concepts of "spirituality" and "patriotism" // Applied psychology and psychoanalysis. - 2007. - No. 1. - S. 7-12.

5. Russian patriotism: origins, content, education in modern conditions. - Study guide / under total. ed. A.K. Bykov, V.I. Lutovinova. - M., 2010 .-- S. 121-122.

Internet-resources:

1. http://www.zpu-journal.ru/ “Demidova EI, Krivoruchenko VK Patriotism is invariable in its idea. Electronic journal "Knowledge. Understanding. Ability". - 2008. - No. 6. - History".

2. http://www.library.novouralsk.ru/ “Public libraries. Interaction path. Issue 12. Spiritual-moral and heroic-patriotic education of readers ”.

Patriotism is a special emotional experience of one's belonging to a country, citizenship, language and traditions, native land and culture. This feeling implies pride in your country and the confidence that it will always protect you. These are the main criteria in the definition, although there are other interpretations.

What is "patriotism"?

The word "patriotism" is translated from Greek as "fatherland", this is a feeling, the essence of which is love for one's country and the willingness to sacrifice everything for it. Who is a patriot - a person who is proud of the successes and culture of her state, strives to preserve the peculiarities of her native language and traditions. This is the most common designation for the essence of the term "patriotism", but there are also other interpretations:

1. A moral indicator that distinguishes a generous person from a low one.
2. Pride in the accomplishments of your people.
3. Real assessment of the actions of your state.
4. Willingness to sacrifice individual interests for the sake of common interests.

Business patriotism - what is it?

In the 21st century, the feeling of patriotism began to reach a new level, calls for the formation of groups of business patriots are beginning to sound louder and louder. It's not just about giving preference to domestic goods, the Russian Association of Entrepreneurs for the Development of Business Patriotism recently proposed its strategy. The main task of its leaders is the comprehensive support of entrepreneurs, since the share of the same small business abroad is several times larger than the domestic one. We need conditions for growth in several directions:

1. Education. Development of youth entrepreneurship, master classes.
2. Supporting the implementation of plans and promoting the growth of commerce.
3. Business club. A place where you can exchange experiences, contacts and best practices.

Nationalism and patriotism - the difference

Many people confuse the concepts of "nationalism" and "patriotism", even in dictionaries it is noted that patriotism is love for the homeland and one's people. Experienced linguists point out the following error in the substitution of concepts:

1. Love for the homeland is a feeling for the land, nature, native language and state. This is also patriotism - an expanded concept of love for one's home.
2. Love for the people is a broad concept of love for loved ones, which arises in a person before patriotism. This is already nationalism, the awareness of commitment to the nation, which is instilled from birth.

Why patriotism is needed?

Why is patriotism important? Experts believe that this is a natural mental state, which is expressed in the readiness to defend one's own from a stranger, to recognize it under a different mask. It is hard to survive without patriotism, because every person should have the main values, for the sake of which it is real to overcome fear and even go to death. Only thanks to tremendous patriotism, the Soviet people were able to win the Second World War, to stop the hordes of enemies at the cost of millions of lives.

A patriot is a person for whom the fate of the state always comes first. But such an attitude appears only when a person is sure that his country will protect him in difficult times, will help his family. Therefore, you cannot force those who survive in poverty to be patriots, people should have something to be proud of, and what specifically to protect: their well-being, rear, achievements.

Types of patriotism

What is patriotism? Over the years, this feeling was used to designate various phenomena, often replacing the concept of "love for the homeland" with "love for the state." This is how other types of patriotism appeared:

1. State... When the interests of the state are paramount.
2. Russian as a phenomenon... For many centuries, for the Slavs, and then for the Soviet people, the main thing was the concept of "homeland", it was compared to a bride, a mother who must be protected.
3. National... Based on the history and cultural heritage of the people, the formation of such love develops a sense of pride, the desire to multiply existing values.
4. Local... It manifests itself in love for its village, city, street, home. A characteristic feature of Soviet ideology was the education of feelings from the particular to the general, from loyalty to one's land to the willingness to give his life for his country.

Education of patriotism

The development of patriotism at all times has been the main task of the ideologists of any country. Events were developed with an emphasis on examples of heroism, songs were composed, events of the past were corrected. The child had to grow up with the thought that his country is the best, because it protects, provides a cheerful childhood, supports in choosing a profession in his youth and protects him from adversity in adulthood.

Therefore, great importance is attached to the study of symbolism, the legal system, acquaintance with the actions of outstanding people. But in a country where there is no return from the state, and the individual does not see what he receives in return for his willingness to sacrifice personal, the problem of patriotism becomes especially acute. Sometimes there are attempts by those in power to grow it artificially.

Church and patriotism

Since ancient times, patriotism and Orthodoxy have been inextricably linked, an example of this is the blessing of the church for the battle of arms of the defenders of the fatherland. This tradition goes back thousands of years, even during the Second World War, when all Soviet people were atheists, special prayers were served, and priests raised funds to buy tanks and aircraft. If we turn to official church documents, then the concept of patriotism is stated as follows:

1. Christians should not forget about their earthly homeland.
2. To be a patriot means to love not only your native land, but also your neighbors, your home, to protect them. Since the sacrifice for the fatherland is made not only on the battlefield, but also for the sake of children.
3. Love your land as a place where faith and the Orthodox Church are preserved.
4. To love other nations as the fulfillment of the commandment to love one's neighbor.

Patriotism - books

There are thousands of examples from the lives of heroes who showed true patriotism, not only in Soviet literature. Many Russian poets and prose writers wrote about such manifestations, and they were also described in epics. The brightest works dedicated to patriotism:

1. A. Fadeev. "Young guard"... A novel about the heroes of the underground of Krasnodon during the Great Patriotic War, more than one generation of Soviet children grew up on it.
2. "A word about Igor's regiment"... An ancient legend telling about the defenders of their native land during hostile raids.
3. L. Tolstoy. "War and Peace"... Important historical episodes of the 19th century - the Patriotic War of 1812, with examples of the heroism of the main characters.
4. B. Polevoy. "The Story of a Real Man"... A novel about the legless pilot Maresyev, who managed to return to aviation to fight the Nazis again.

Recently, nationalist sentiments have grown significantly in Russian society. In the youth environment, negativism, a demonstrative attitude towards adults, and extreme cruelty are very often manifested. Crime has sharply increased and "rejuvenated". Many young people today find themselves outside the educational environment, on the streets, where they learn the hard science of education in harsh conditions. Over the past decade, we have practically lost an entire generation, whose representatives could potentially become true patriots and worthy citizens of our country.

At present, the priorities of earthly interests are imposed to a greater extent over moral and religious values, as well as patriotic feelings. “The traditional foundations of upbringing and education are being replaced by“ more modern ”, Western ones: Christian virtues - by the universal values ​​of humanism; pedagogy of respect for elders and joint work - the development of a creative egoistic personality; chastity, abstinence, self-restraint - permissiveness and satisfaction of their needs; love and self-sacrifice - Western psychology of self-affirmation; interest in Russian culture - an exceptional interest in foreign languages ​​and foreign traditions ”.

Many scientists note that a crisis occurs in the souls of people. The system of previous spiritual values ​​and guidelines has been lost, and new ones have not yet been developed. In turn, a system of false values ​​of "mass" culture and subcultures (goths, punks, emo, skinheads, etc.) spreads: consumerism, entertainment, the cult of power, aggression, vandalism, freedom without responsibility, simplification.

Hence, one of the most pressing issues is the issue of patriotic education of modern youth. To be a patriot is a natural need of people, the satisfaction of which acts as a condition for their material and spiritual development, the establishment of a humanistic way of life, awareness of their historical cultural, national and spiritual belonging to the Motherland and understanding of the democratic prospects for its development in the modern world.

Understanding patriotism has a deep theoretical tradition that goes back centuries. Plato already has reasoning that the homeland is dearer than father and mother. In a more developed form, love for the Fatherland, as the highest value, is considered in the works of such thinkers as N. Machiavelli, Y. Krizhanich, J.-J. Russo, I.G. Fichte.

The idea of ​​patriotism as the basis for the unification of the Russian lands in the struggle against a common enemy is already clearly heard in the "Tale of Bygone Years" and in the sermons of Sergius of Radonezh. With the liberation of the country from the foreign yoke and the formation of a single state, patriotic ideas acquire a material basis and become one of the forms of manifestation of state patriotism, the most important direction in the activities of state and public institutions.

Many thinkers and teachers of the past, revealing the role of patriotism in the process of a person's personal formation, pointed to their multifaceted formative influence. So, for example, K.D. Ushinsky believed that patriotism is not only an important task of upbringing, but also a powerful pedagogical tool: “As there is no man without self-love, so there is no man without love for the fatherland, and this love gives upbringing the right key to a man's heart and a powerful support for the fight against it. bad natural, personal, family and ancestral inclinations. "

I.A. Ilyin wrote: “People instinctively, naturally and imperceptibly get used to their environment, to nature, to the neighbors and culture of their country, to the way of life of their people. But that is precisely why the spiritual essence of patriotism remains almost always beyond the threshold of their consciousness. Then love for the homeland lives in souls in the form of an unreasonable, objectively indefinite inclination, which either completely freezes and loses its strength until there is proper irritation (in times of peace, in an era of quiet life), then it flares up with a blind and unreasonable passion, a fire awakened, frightened and a hardened instinct capable of drowning out the voice of conscience in the soul, and a sense of proportion and justice, and even the demands of elementary meaning. "

In the explanatory dictionary of V.I. Dahl, the word "patriot" means "lover of the fatherland, zealous for its good, otniznogo, patriot or fatherland." Patriotism as a personality trait manifests itself in love and respect for one's Fatherland, compatriots, devotion, readiness to serve one's Motherland. The Pedagogical Encyclopedic Dictionary gives the following definition of patriotism: “… love for the fatherland, for the native land, for one's cultural environment. These natural foundations of patriotism as a natural feeling combine its moral significance as a duty and a virtue. A clear awareness of their duties in relation to the fatherland and their faithful fulfillment form the virtue of patriotism, which since ancient times also had a religious significance ... ".

Patriotism is a spiritual phenomenon that has great stability, persists for a long time among the people when it is destroyed, and dies in 3-4 generations. True, basically spiritual, patriotism presupposes disinterested, selfless service to the Fatherland. He was and remains a moral and political principle, a social feeling, the content of which is expressed in love for his Fatherland, devotion to him, pride in his past and present, aspiration and readiness to protect him. Patriotism is one of the deepest feelings enshrined in centuries of struggle for the freedom and independence of the homeland.

Patriotism is an element of both social and individual consciousness. At the level of public consciousness, patriotism means the national and state idea of ​​the unity and originality of a given people, which is formed on the basis of traditions, stereotypes, morals, history and culture of each particular nation. At the level of individual consciousness, patriotism is experienced as love for the Motherland, pride in one's country, the desire to learn, understand and improve it. Thus, patriotism is one of the constituent elements of the structure of social consciousness, which reflects: the attitude of the individual to the Fatherland, to the Motherland, to the people.

A.N. Vyrshchikov, M.B. Kusmartsev believe that patriotism is not a movement against something, but a movement for the values ​​that society and people have. Patriotism is, first of all, a state of mind and soul. Hence, according to A.N. Vyrshchikova, M.B. Kusmartsev, the most important domestic socio-cultural postulate that reveals the meaning of upbringing comes from: the highest value is a person who knows how and is able to love, and the highest value of a person himself is love for his homeland. “The idea of ​​patriotism at all times occupied a special place not only in the spiritual life of society, but also in all the most important spheres of its activity - in ideology, politics, culture, economics, ecology, etc. Patriotism is an integral part of the national idea of ​​Russia, an integral component of national science and culture, developed over the centuries. He has always been regarded as a source of courage, heroism and strength of the Russian people, as a necessary condition for the greatness and power of our state. "

True patriotism is essentially humanistic, includes respect for other peoples and countries, for their national customs and traditions, and is inextricably linked with the culture of interethnic relations. In this sense, patriotism and the culture of interethnic relations are closely related to each other, act in organic unity and are defined in pedagogy as “such a moral quality that includes the need to faithfully serve our homeland, the manifestation of love and loyalty to it, awareness and experience of its greatness and glory, his spiritual connection with her, the desire to protect her honor and dignity, by practical deeds to strengthen the power and independence. "

Thus, patriotism includes: a feeling of attachment to the places where a person was born and raised; respectful attitude to the language of their people; concern for the interests of the big and small homeland; awareness of duty to the Motherland, upholding its honor and dignity, freedom and independence (defense of the Fatherland); manifestation of civic feelings and preservation of loyalty to the Motherland; pride in the social, economic, political, sports and cultural achievements of their country; pride in your Fatherland, for the symbols of the state, for your people; respectful attitude to the historical past of the Motherland, its people, its customs and traditions; responsibility for the fate of the Motherland and their people, their future, expressed in the desire to devote their work, the ability to strengthen the power and prosperity of the Motherland; humanism, mercy, universal values, i.e. true patriotism presupposes the formation and its long-term development of a whole complex of positive qualities. The basis of this development is the spiritual, moral and sociocultural components. Patriotism appears in the unity of spirituality, citizenship and social activity of a person who realizes his inseparability, inseparability from the Fatherland.

The main functions of patriotism of a citizen of Russia at the beginning of the third millennium are: “preserving, saving and collecting Russian statehood; reproduction of patriotic-expressed social relations; ensuring the comfort of human life in a given socio-cultural environment; protection of the state and national interests of Russia, its integrity; identification of the individual in the socio-cultural environment of his own small homeland and relating himself to the space of the big homeland; mobilization of resources of an individual, a specific team, society, state in ensuring social, political and economic stability; civil and patriotic sense formation in the life position and strategy of the individual; tolerance in the process of consolidation of Russian society ”.

The principles of patriotism are one of the forms of expression of spiritual, moral and ideological requirements, in their most general form revealing the content of service to the Fatherland that exists in modern Russian society. They express the fundamental requirements regarding the essence of serving the Fatherland, ensuring the unity of interests of a person, a team, the nature of relationships between people in society, the state, determine the general direction of human activity and underlie private, specific norms of behavior. In this respect, they serve as criteria for morality, culture, patriotism and citizenship.

The principles of patriotism are of universal importance, embrace all people, and consolidate the foundations of the culture of their relationships, created in the long process of the historical development of each particular society. Among the basic principles of A.N. Vyrshchikov, M.B. Kusmartsev include: national-ideological, public-state, social-pedagogical.

Nature, parents, relatives, homeland, people - it is no coincidence that the same root words. According to A.N. Vyrshchikova, it is “a kind of space of patriotism, which is based on the feelings of the Motherland, kinship, rootedness and solidarity, love, which is conditioned at the level of instincts. It is necessary, because we do not choose parents, children, homeland, place of our birth ”.

PATRIOTISM (Greek patris - homeland, fatherland) is a special disposition, attitude shown by a person, social group, population to their country, their people, homeland, the desire to support the prosperity of their country, fatherland, love for the motherland, fatherland with their participation.

Raizberg B.A. Modern Socioeconomic Dictionary. M., 2012, p. 360.

Civil patriotism

CIVIL PATRIOTISM - a deep feeling of love for the motherland, its people, culture, language, native nature, historical roots; willingness to serve their country, to strengthen, develop and defend it. At the same time, civil patriotism, in accordance with the neo-humanistic concept, also focuses on adequate feedback (the principle of harmony) - on the love of the fatherland for its fellow citizens, on the respect by the patriotic state of human rights and freedoms, of the entire civil society, which ensures its well-being, strength and greatness.

Education is patriotic and international

PATRIOTIC AND INTERNATIONAL UPBRINGING. Patriotism and internationalism (B.T.Likhachev) are the core of all civil war. The essence of the concept of "patriotism" includes love for the Motherland, for the land where he was born and raised, pride in the historical achievements of his people. Patriotism is inextricably combined with internationalism, a sense of universal human solidarity with the peoples of all countries. A special place in V. and.

Patriotism (KPS, 1988)

PATRIOTISM (from the Greek patriotes - compatriot, patris - homeland) - a feeling of love for one's homeland, for the fatherland, readiness to defend it from enemies. It was generated and consolidated by the existence of "separate fatherlands for centuries and millennia" ( V. I. Lenin). The content of P. depends on the specific historical conditions of the life of society, its , the policy of the dominant groups, the goals and objectives facing them. So, during the struggle of the young bourgeoisie against economic fragmentation, civil strife among the feudal lords, which served as a brake on the rallying of the people for the purposes of economic development, the bourgeoisie played a progressive role, since it opened up space for the further development of productive forces. With strengthening and especially after its transition to the imperialist stage, P. becomes an ideological weapon of imperialism. It is used by the most militant imperialist circles of bourgeois states to incite some peoples against others under the hypocritical mask of defending the bourgeois fatherland. The most inhuman nature of the use of patriotic feelings manifested itself in the politics of fascism. The role of the proletariat under capitalism is manifested in the revolutionary struggle against the existing system, for socialism ...

Patriotism (Comte-Sponville)

PATRIOTISME. Love for the homeland, free from blinding and xenophobia. Differs from nationalism (Nationalism) and sometimes serves to disguise it. Nationalism is, as a rule, someone else's patriotism, while patriotism is nationalism in the first person. One of the properties of blindness is that a person does not see himself. Therefore, patriotism is valuable only if it is subordinated to reason, which has a universal character, or justice, which tends to universality. This is the very meaning of human rights today and the very existence of international tribunals.

Patriotism (Frolov)

PATRIOTISM (Greek patris - fatherland) is a moral and political principle, a social feeling, the content of which is love for the fatherland, devotion to it, pride in its past and present, the desire to defend the interests of the motherland. Patriotism is “one of the most profound feelings, enshrined for centuries and millennia of isolated fatherlands” (Lenin V. I. T. 37, p. 190). Historically, elements of P. in the form of attachment to their native land, language, and traditions were formed already in antiquity. With the deepening of social antagonisms in the content of P.

Patriotism as a moral principle

PATRIOTISM is a moral principle, moral norm and moral feeling that arose at the dawn of the formation of mankind and was deeply comprehended by ancient theorists. A patriot is a person who expresses and realizes in his actions a deep sense of respect and love for his native country, its history, cultural traditions, and its people. In ancient Greece, since the time of Socrates, P.