What is patriotism?

Probably, every person heard a word like"patriotism". However, not everyone is able to give a clear concept to this definition. What is patriotism? In order to understand and write this article.

The very word "patriotism" is rooted inancient Greece. In translation from the Greek language, this concept means "fatherland, compatriot." The explanatory dictionary of the Russian language gives the definition of patriotism as a moral and political principle, which consists in the love of the Fatherland and the ability to subordinate its interests to its interests. Patriotism implies pride in belonging to a certain state, pride in its achievements and the desire to multiply and preserve these achievements for many years. Turning to an explanatory dictionary, we can now understand what patriotism is manifested.

If you look deeper, then a historical sourcepatriotism is the existence of people, fixed for centuries and millennia, within the framework of individual states, which in itself formed a person's love and devotion to the place where he grew up and lived. In the conditions of the formation of national states, patriotism becomes an integral part of national self-awareness and culture. When answering the question - what is the manifestation of patriotism, it is enough simply to turn to the history of the Great Patriotic War, where people have massively sacrificed their lives for the sake of their native land. These characters are most often cited as an example when schoolchildren write an essay - what is patriotism.

Classification of types of patriotism

With what is a phenomenon of patriotism, we figured it out. However, the very concept of "patriotism" also has its own classification. So, what are the types of patriotism?

1. Polis patriotism is a phenomenon that was observed in the era of ancient states, and is a love for a certain city-state (policy).
2. Imperial patriotism - expressed a loyal attitude to the empire, as well as to its government.
3. Ethnic patriotism is a phenomenon that represents a love for a certain people without any binding to a particular locality or state.
4. State patriotism. It is a feeling of deep love and devotion to a certain state, country.
5. Quas patriotism. It represents a very strong, hypertrophied feeling of love for the state and its people.

Criticism of patriotism

However, there is another opinion regardingpatriotism. Leo Tolstoy considers patriotism in his works as, in general, a destructive phenomenon. He said that the love of his people and earth is the true source of all the wars and sufferings associated with them. He also added that patriotism as a phenomenon is deeply alien to the Russian people. Tolstoy explained this by saying that he had never heard from Russians about the sincere and real expression of this feeling, but he paid much attention to the people's disregard for this feeling.

To summarize, I would like to note thatthere are many answers to the question of what patriotism means. However, all its definitions are insignificantly different from each other and by and large are reduced to describing the same phenomenon.