The formation of the national identity is determined by the process of comparing “yourself” with “the other”. The feeling of the national identity is fixing the differences “our - strangers”, “ours - not ours”. When the ethnic culture is formed there is an intensive process of self-reflection, self-identification, “the image of yourself” is made up in relation to the “images” of other people, countries and cultures.Since ancient times the human consciousness has a particular relevance to the problem of forming the image of someone’s people and images of other people.This article analyzes the problem mentioned above. It examines the national images of the system of intercultural interaction of world civilizations in the modern period. The authors find out that a high degree of cultural differences and peculiarities of religious traditions, secular political divisions and military conflicts between Russia and the West contributed to the formation of various barriers that hinder the achievement of an adequate mutual perception and understanding of two civilizations. In modern times for a more complete and clear mutual understanding of national images the national problem of overcoming the various kinds of communication barriers between the West and Russia is being actualized. The basic techniques of forming “a national image” are advertising and public relations.