The origin of Russian nationalism in the works of Russian enlightenment philosophers of the XVIII century

At the beginning of the XVIII century, Russia embarked on the path of modernization and integration into the European political space. Russian intellectuals actively adopted the ideals of national sovereignty and civil freedom from European enlightenment philosophers, and Russian nationalism began to take shape under their direct influence. The relevance of the research is determined by the need to study the phenomenon of Russian nationalism at an early stage of its formation in order to identify the cultural and political origins of its origin and its connection with the pan-European trend of popularizing the nation-state as an idea. Russian nationalism appeared as a result of the introduction of Russian thought to the European Enlightenment and as a reaction to the strengthening of the feudal and police-bureaucratic apparatus in the Russian state.