The author, in accordance with the logic of constructivism, analyzes interaction of three factors: the discourse of “Russian idea”; national identity of the Russians; and political technologies of manipulating this identity by using different variants of “Russian idea”. Investigation of the issues in question is important, since it promotes “reflexive modernization” of dominant discourses defining Russia and the Russians. The different readings of national identity of the Russians ever since the period of the famous debates between the Slavophiles and the Westernizers, can be analyzed as the elements of one “matrix”, which operates like grammar in natural language. The task of “reflexive modernization” is carried on in the article by discovering elements of irrationality embedded in the key elements and in the structure of the discourses on Russian national identity.