RAJIV SINHA - THE WAR IN UKRAINE THROUGH COMPETING HISTORICAL VIEWS OF THE UKRAINIAN NATION

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: The history of Ukrainian nationhood is rich and complex. These qualities have been suppressed for almost a millennium by various iterations of overlords, often Russian (but also Polish and Austro-Hungarian) — first the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal, then the Grand Duchy of Moscow, then the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and finally the Russian Federation. Ukraine has been an independent state since 1991, but today’s conflict can be seen as an attempt by the Russian Federation to subjugate its neighbour yet again. This paper will explore the historical roots of Ukrainian nationhood, how it is defined internally versus how it is defined externally, and the effects of the current war on the Ukrainian nation-state. The interpretation of Rus’ and other Slavic orders as predecessors to a Ukrainian nation-state with its own legitimate place in the international system is at least as valid as the interpretation that such polities provide historical backing to the Russian nation-state. And, just as Putin failed in his attempt to undermine the national and political heart of Ukraine in 2014, so too is the war today — his “special military operation” — backfiring. Instead he is uniting the Ukrainian nation and much of the world behind it. Though the war has been devastating to the people and land of Ukraine, this paper will argue that Ukrainian nationhood is currently in its strongest and most coherent form ever.

Subject	nationalism
Subject	Stanford Global Studies
Subject	Ukraine
Subject	nation
Subject	nationhood
Subject	Center for Russian, East European Studies
Subject	Russia
Genre	Image
Genre	Thesis

DOI	https://doi.org/10.25740/sb900xy8274
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/sb900xy8274

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Preferred citation: Sinha, R. (2022). RAJIV SINHA - THE WAR IN UKRAINE THROUGH COMPETING HISTORICAL VIEWS OF THE UKRAINIAN NATION. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/sb900xy8274

Masters Theses in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies

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