The Idea of Patriotism in the Union State Agenda: Positions of Political and Expert Community

The agenda of the Union State in the modern conditions is enriched with the meanings and categories that have not been demanded by the political community before. Changes in the internal and especially external environment actualize the activation of patriotic rhetoric at different levels. Patriotism is increasingly recognized as a normative resource not only in the plane of intra-state interactions, but also in integrative ones. The Union State, being a multi-dimensional format, is objectively and subjectively perceived as a model platform for testing and implementing the idea of a common Motherland. This idea is supported by a whole set of traditional and modern ties, historical and moral values, a kind of elite pact. However, its content is ambiguous, as well as the understanding of the importance of the union patriotic agenda as a whole. This reasoning is illustrated by the results of the discursive practices analysis of allied institutions members and an expert survey with the participation of Russian and Belarusian specialists. The scale of assessments in this field is quite wide – from exclusively positive to negative. Optimistic judgments and positions prevail, oriented towards substantiating and developing recommendations for improving national mechanisms and technologies that correspond to the Union ones. For political community representatives of the Union State, the central issues are the preservation of historical memory, patriotic education of youth, creation of a common educational, informational and symbolic space, confrontation with external challenges and threats, and internal consolidation. The conjugation of axiological aspect and pragmatic expectations and needs is obvious. It is argued to stimulate the population loyalty of the participating countries, primarily young people, to the Union State, the idea of union building, a common Motherland through comprehensive activities, programs, projects covering different spheres, right up to scientific and technological. Experts, as well as representatives of the political community, note the multiplicity of factors contributing to the actualization of common approaches to patriotic education within the Union State. A distinctive feature is that they emphasize internal factors to a greater extent than national and union-level politicians. The jointly high evaluation is addressed to the regions of Russia and Belarus and their contribution to the formation and promotion of the patriotic agenda. Experts tend to criticize the role of union institutions as bureaucratic and, for the most part, do not support proposals to create new units or bodies responsible for patriotic education. The content and nature of political and expert assessments, as well as certain recent integration decisions, encourage to do conclusions about rather favorable prospects in the area under consideration. The key consistent lines of representation by the leading political actors of the patriotic theme projected on the union space have been formed, the introduction of relevant guidelines into the normative field and the main directions of the union construction has begun, and a huge number of patriotic initiatives are being implemented. At the same time, unsurpassed gaps in historical policy, identity policy, unresolved fundamental issues in the humanitarian dimension, conflicts in the interpretation of the state (national) ideology, refusal to deepen political integration, vague contours of the model of Russian-Belarusian integration and some other circumstances prevent the completion of institutionalization of the Union patriotic agenda and, to an even greater extent, the Union policy of patriotic education.