The political and ideological vectors of the national policy of Russia

In the article the author analyzes the ideological and political vectors of national policy of Russia at the end of 20 th - the beginning of the 21 st centuries. The starting position of this analysis is the statement of existence of a bipolar continuum of centralism-decentralism in the political history of Russia. The decentralization of the state always occurred in the periods of social, economic and political shocks and in turn deepened crisis. On the contrary, the centralization always led to stability of the state and to the recovery from crisis. In the 20 th century one more bipolar ideological line appeared: it is the dichotomy of ethno-nation and civil nation. On crossing of these two continuums the ideological and political field of national policy of Russia was created. For institutional construction in the sphere of national policy of Russia positioning of the state in the field of centralism and civil nation is optimum.