Civilizational Discourse in the Nation-Building Policy of Post-Soviet States: Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan

Using extensive empirical data, a qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the terminological and conceptual foundations of the official civilizational discourse on nation-building in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan is conducted. The research examines key words and categories within the civilizational discourse and conducts a comparative analysis of its semantic content across the three investigated states. The article is grounded in a constructivist methodology that emphasizes the pivotal influence of ruling elites on the formation of national identity and its various manifestations. The information base was formed through the study of official sources and additional materials regulating the process of nation-building in the three states. The empirical material is presented by a table of the discursive series of the civilizational discourse of nation-building in three countries, as well as graphic material showing the frequency of mentioning units of the civilizational discourse of nation-building. It is concluded that in each country the civilizational discourse has a different substantive basis, however, we can talk about a certain general character of the frequency of units of civilizational discourse, characteristic of all three states.