Abstract
The article deals with the phenomenon of the Belarusian national identity, with a particular focus on its specific characteristics and attributes, taking into consideration the overall context and trends of the national consciousness shaping. By and large, the current tide of interest in the issue has been determined by a wide range of major and deep-rooted causes as well as a variety of external and internal factors.
Given the consequences of the obtained national sovereignty, coupled with the utterly underdeveloped and deficient self-reflection of the post-soviet Belarusians, the above mentioned imperative becomes an issue of far greater concern of the recent political and analytical discourse. The author claims that the nucleus of the Belarusian national identity could be interpreted mainly in the context of the collective sense of membership and constituting a solid political community, a nation defined in terms of political determinants.