The subject investigated in the article is correlation between liberalism and nationalism. Analyzing the experience of conceptualization of the "national factor" by liberal thinkers, the author demonstrates that, contrary to prevalent stereotypes, liberalism and nationalism were not always taken as incompatible things; moreover, for almost the whole of the 19th century a real prospect was available for the incorporation of the set of ideas related to the phenomenon of nation, in liberal theory. The reasons why this possibility remained unrealized, are to be searched for, in her opinion, both in the particularity of the experience of theoretical comprehension of the " national" issues by liberals of the 19th century and in the specificity of the social context in which such comprehension was being tried. According to A.Yu. Malinova's conclusion, the "gap" between liberalism and nationalism was to a considerable extent due to the transformation of nationalism itself, as well as to the fact that it became difficult for liberals to compete with "new liberals" in securing mass support.