In the present article, the causes of a conflict of identities in the post-Soviet space are exposed based on the theoretical grounds of the authors’ understanding of the meaning of the concept “identity”. For that, the authors turn to the formation of national identity in Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union and post-Soviet States. This paper analyses the content of such concepts Война идентичностей 147 № 4(11), декабрь 2014 as “ethnocracy”, “constructing national identity”, and “the symbols of national pride” to explore reasons for the collapse of statehood in polyethnic societies and the factors for the preservation or restoration of statehood in such societies. In particular, the paper examines the content of Soviet identity and its role in the formation and preservation of Russian statehood. According to the authors, the conflict between identities in the former Soviet space is based on a conflict between the Soviet identity preserved until the present day on the part of the population and the formation of identity in the new states – an identity that includes some elements of nationalism. According to the authors, the war of identities that broke out in Ukraine became a classical embodiment of this conflict. The conflict between artificially designed national identity in the post-Soviet states and the Soviet identity defines in many respects the political situation in these states. The authors criticize the point of view of the current political discourse that there was a collision of the Russian world and Ukrainian nationalism. The article reasonably exposes the nature of this war of identities as the war between Ukrainian nationalism constructed over the last twenty years and the established Soviet identity, uniting mainly citizens of southeastern Ukraine with the same citizens of other post-Soviet States, especially Russia. 

war, state, citizens, identity, history, nation, nationalism, conflict