Is Pyschological Makeup a Characteristic of a Nation?

Abstract

To define the concept of a means to enumerate its significant universal characteristics. The participants in the discussion on the concept in progress in the pages of Voprosy istorii, have offered a variety of definitions of a nation, in which they have put forth criteria both significant and insignificant. In the first place, it is difficult to agree with definitions that place emphasis upon criteria characteristic of nations at particular periods of their development, for such criteria will be partial and not general definitions. They are also necessary, of course, but they do not resolve the problems posed in seeking to provide a general definition of the concept nation. In our view, Dzhunusov is right in asserting that it is impossible to enumerate (and we would add that no need to do so exists) all the characteristics of a nation, and that the definition should include only those that express the distinctive essence of this phenomenon. (1) Such a definition of the concept nation ...