Russian nation-building in the age of enlightenment

The article is devoted to the origins of nation-building in Russia and identification of the reasons for mainstreaming this issue precisely in the Age of Enlightenment. The main reasons are following: Russia declared itself as a powerful state and entered the world historical and cultural process; a revaluation of values occurred as a result of new capitalist relations; Russia joined the pan-European process of nation-building and developing of national identity. In the process of nation-building a problem of developing a new idea arises, around which a new worldview and new values will be built. For the sake of a new value position, church ideology is abandoned and another one - based on reasonable principles - is built. The idea of Great Russia is taken as the main idea. The ideas of the Enlightenment bound the search for a new ideology and national needs. In modern Russia the problem of national identity has become actual, and the issues to be resolved are almost the same.