One Hundred Years of the Ukrainian Liberation Struggle (original) (raw)

The perpetual motion of Ukrainian independence

The Curse of Empire and the Russian Lie. Russia and Ukraine in Context, 2022

The chapter is focused on more than thirty years of Ukrainian independence, since its declaration in 1991. A comprehensive view linking history, politics, society, economy, technology, military and culture. The text critically highlights the consequences of corruption and deindustrialization of the Ukrainian economy. On the other hand, it highlights the role of civil society, which is able to substitute in many ways for the poorly functioning state, including the country's military defence. And it points out that the growing Russian pressure, which resulted in open aggression in February 2022, is unintentionally contributing to the strengthening of Ukrainian national consciousness and identity.

From "the Ukraine" to Ukraine. A Contemporary History 1991 2021 short

Stuttgrat: ibidem Verlag, 2021

In this book, we aim to present the contemporary history of the people of Ukraine. Ukrainians deserve a contemporary history that follows their own expression not only through politics but also in private entrepreneurship, art, religion, and self-imagination. Ac- cordingly, the chapters that follow cover thirty years of Ukraine’s development in the fields of politics, economics, energy, society, media, contemporary art, religion, national identity, and democ- racy. One of our major tasks was to find a meeting point for the per- spectives of Ukrainian and Western scholars on this three-decade story of contemporary Ukraine. For this reason, each chapter was co-written by authors from Western and Ukrainian universities and research institutions in what was often a time-consuming and com- plex interaction. Additionally, each chapter was written in an at- tempt to blend academic depth and rigor with accessibility to a wider, not only academic, readership. We hope that readers will agree that the result was worth the effort.

Tadeusz A. Olszański: The great decommunisation. Ukraine’s wartime historical policy. OSW Point of View, No 65, September 2017

The war with Russia which began in 2014 has triggered serious changes in the way history is thought about by the Ukrainian public, especially in opinion-forming circles. The liberal reflection critical about the nationalist tradition initiated somewhat earlier has been rejected since wartime requires heroic narratives above all. Ukraine also had to counteract the propaganda offensive from Russia which wanted to equate the Ukrainian patriotic movement with radical nationalism seen at the time of World War II, which it branded as ‘fascist’. As a result of the war, the Ukrainian public, even its Russian-speaking section, turned their backs on Russia and its traditions. Ukraine has seen a radical decommunisation of the public space since the Revolution of Dignity; almost all monuments bearing Soviet content (except for war monuments) have been removed and almost all the names of cities, towns and villages and a significant part of the names of streets and institutions referring to the Communist regime have been changed. This process is still not over but has not been resisted by the public or regional elites.

Ukraine's Path to Freedom: Reflections in Times of War

2022

This essay is focused on overview of the results of 30 years of Ukraine's independence. It describes its path from the collapse of the USSR to the present day and explains the prerequisites for a full-scale war Russia started against Ukraine.

Historical Evolution of Ukraine and its Post- Communist Challenges

Revista de Științe Politice. Revue des Sciences Politiques, 2018

The current borders of Ukraine arose during the Soviet ruling of the country, different regions were incorporated into their territory from the 20s to the 50s of the last century due to the annexations and territorial transfers, that were made by the different leaders of Moscow. Thus, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine achieved independence with a territorial extension that reaches all regions inhabited mostly by ethnically Ukrainian population. At the moment of independence most of its citizens put their regional problems aside to show themselves as a united country and so that Ukraine achieves international recognition as a new independent State. However, as time goes by the disagreements have resurfaced, which shows that these tensions continued existing although they seemed hidden for years. We need to keep in mind that to understand all these issues it is necessary to analyze how the historical evolution of the Ukrainian territory has been, yet it is not only about climatic differences or economic issues. For this reason, this paper aims to study the differences that have historically existed in Ukraine. These differences were caused by territories that once were part of other powers and now are integrated in Ukraine and by the influences received by external actors. It should be considered that most of the current conflicts come from there. Therefore, this contribution intends to show how, from the historical formation of the Ukrainian territory, the conflicts are taking place in the Slavic country. To carry out this study we will focus on a historical reconstruction of the national question.

The Emergence of Ukraine : Self-Determination, Occupation, and War in Ukraine, 1917–1922

This book focused on the joint Ukrainian-Polish military operation against Soviet Russia, the causes of its failure, and the subsequent Soviet offensive in Poland and its defeat. Against the background of these developments, the book presented a much broader picture of the political situation in Ukraine at that momentous time and of the difficult Polish-Ukrainian relations that then prevailed.

Between socialist homeland and totalitarian dictatorship. The image of the post-World War II period in Ukrainian historical discourse

Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej , 2022

This paper is devoted to the analysis of selected aspects how Ukrainian schools present the historical narrative that covers the post-World War II history of this country-particularly the period of late socialism. My goal was to establish how post-Maidan textbooks presented the times when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union in its superpower phase. I was especially interested in the current assessment of such phenomena as: post-Stalinist modernization, the movements opposing communist ideology, and the late socialist concept of the Soviet people. The source material was five new textbooks for historical education at high-school level approved for use by the Ukrainian authorities in 2019. The basic research method was discourse analysis: the content of the textbooks were critically evaluated in light of the ongoing political and social situation. Among the theoretical assumptions that were applied in the paper was that the historical narrative has a key importance as a function of the nation-state and as such serves its interests. To conclude the analysis below, it should be emphasized that historical narrative of Ukrainian Schools presents the past of the country in the second half of the 20th century as a general process of gaining independence from the Soviet centre. In the context of Russia' s aggression against Ukraine, it should be assumed that the emancipatory nature of the interpretation of Ukraine' s national history is now irreversible.