Nationalism as the Natural Condition of Political Communities: A Rebuttal to Imperial Rhetoric on “Nazism”

Nationalism Is the Norm, Not the Deviation

Nationalism is not an ideological extremity, but rather a normal phase in the formation of the modern nation-state, without which neither civil society nor democratic governance is possible. As theorists such as Ernest Gellner, Benedict Anderson, and Eric Hobsbawm have noted, nationalism is a political principle that holds that the boundaries of the state should correspond to those of the national community.

The nation is an effort to organize political life around a shared language, memory, and symbolic space. In this sense, nationalism is a response to imperial domination, to the forced erasure of cultures, languages, and identities — not a deviation from the norm.

“Patriotism” in Imperial Discourse Means Obedience, Not Identity

The opposition of “patriotism” to “nationalism” is a classic rhetorical trick of empires. In the Austro-Hungarian, British, and French imperial contexts, “patriotism” meant loyalty to the imperial center — not to one’s native culture or community.

In the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union, patriotism served as a mobilizing tool for centralized power, justifying wars, repression, and cultural homogenization. It promoted loyalty to the imperial narrative, while branding any expression of national self-determination as dangerous or divisive.

Empires Fear Nationalism Because It Threatens Their Existence

For any empire, the nationalism of its subjugated peoples is a direct existential threat. Putin’s hostility to Ukrainian nationalism, alongside his glorification of “great Russian patriotism,” reflects this fear. Nationalism destabilizes the imperial vertical because it affirms a people’s right to self-determination, to historical agency, and to sovereignty without supervision from a “big brother.”

In short, Putin’s anti-nationalism is not anti-extremism — it is fear of emancipation. It is the fear that nations once colonized by Moscow will no longer be governable through myth and fear.

Nazism ≠ Nationalism: A Deliberate Misuse of Terms

Nazism is an extreme form of ethno-racial totalitarianism built on extermination and supremacist ideology. Nationalism, by contrast, is a political philosophy of collective identity and self-organization. In its democratic forms, it has nothing in common with genocide or racial hatred.

To conflate nationalism with Nazism is to weaponize terminology in order to delegitimize basic aspirations to freedom and cultural survival.

This is a semantic sleight of hand used not to protect against extremism, but to justify imperial repression.

✅ Conclusion:

Nationalism is not a threat — it is a defense. It is the right of a people to be themselves, to form a state, to preserve their language, culture, and memory. This is precisely why empires always contrast “good patriotism” with “bad nationalism” — not out of love for peace, but out of fear of losing control.

🛡️ History shows that wherever nationalism is silenced, imperial domination advances under the mask of “unity,” “brotherhood,” or “patriotism.”