The article aims at examining some theoretical and methodological aspects of the phenomenon of citizenship, which are analyzed at the interdisciplinary level. The author notes that the combination of two mutually complementary “perspectives” - “solidarity” and “conflict” - became the basis for modern studies of the phenomenon of citizenship, the interest in which became topical in modern conditions among thinkers of all parts of the political spectrum. It is emphasized that the new “theory of citizenship” focuses on active citizenship, what is considered by nowadays political theorists as an argument in favor of the developing a sense of the national identity, based on a common language, history and social institutions. At the same time, it is noted that in the modern discourse of citizenship there is a refusal to understand it as comparable only to the national state level: that leads to a shift in the focus of real policy in the field of citizenship from the diversity of subjects to a variety of levels and forms, as well as places and spaces of its “production”. The author notes that the new trends in the development of the institution of citizenship, in particular the idea of “differentiated citizenship”, are closely related to the issue of shaping a civic nation that is relevant for the modern Russian state.