It is the concept of “national community’’ that is substantiated in the article, in correlation with the concepts of “civilizational” and “quasi-ethnic” communities and “territorial” and “national-territorial” states. As basic characteristics of the phenomenon expressed by the concept being substantiated, are presented: estatelessness, secular and individualized nature, presence of a “national core” in the world of ideas, formed by high secular national culture and by the myths of “national history” and of “people-nation”. Proceeding from examining the process of the formation of “national communities” in Britain and in France, the author makes his conclusion about the degree to which such community has been formed in Russia.