National Question and Its Resolution: Semantics of Ethnic Disintegration and Integration in Russian History Textbooks of 20th-21st Centuries

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of verbalizing the semantics of ethnic disintegration (separation) and integration (unity) through terminological means. The study is based on an analysis of 40 combinations featuring the word “nation” and its derivatives, which are regularly employed in contemporary educational publications on Russian history from the 20th to the 21st century. The aim of this work is to describe the conceptual fields of ethnic disintegration or integration as represented by the terminological tools of educational historical discourse. Through a logical-semantic approach, the boundaries of the terminologies of disintegration / integration and their logical models are identified; the semantics of individual terminological units are described, including their axiological potentials. The structures of the conceptual fields represented by combinations with “nation” and its derivatives are delineated. The author concludes that the terms “national question” and “resolution of the national question” serve as foundational nominations within educational historical discourse, organizing the terminological systems of disintegration and integration. These terms are interpreted as opposing yet complementary fields that reflect the states of the nation and state in their opposition (political distancing of the nation from the state) or identification (political unity), encompassing a border zone filled with characteristics that facilitate the transition of the nation and state from one state to another.