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History, Europe and the “National Idea”: The “Official” Narrative of National Identity in Ukraine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Kataryna Wolczuk*
Affiliation:
Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham, U.K.

Extract

The demise of the Soviet Union entailed a reconfiguration of the political space and a reforging of collective identities within the boundaries of the new successor states. In the view of Anthony Smith, this was inevitable: “the rediscovery of the national self is not an academic matter, it is a pressing practical issue, vexed, and contentious, which spells life or death for the nationalist project of creating a nation.” Defining the national “self not only accomplishes a symbolic break with the previous political community but also sets out the parameters of statehood with regard to language and minority rights. However, even if the newness of the polity precipitates ”the definition, creation, and solidarification of a viable collective identity,“ this can be anything but straightforward. New states dwell on particularism, that is they look to ”local mores, established institutions, and the unities of common experience—to ‘tradition,’ ‘culture,’ ‘national character,’ or even ‘race’ for the roots of a new identity.“ And yet defining the national particularism may be fraught with inherent difficulties because, as Geertz observed, ”new states tend to be bundles of competing traditions gathered accidentally into concocted political frameworks rather than organically evolving civilizations.“

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

1. As Roman Szporluk pointed out, the making of one nation entails the unmaking of another; nation building in Ukraine compels the remaking of the Russian nation. Roman Szporluk, “Ukraine: From an Imperial Periphery to a Sovereign State,” Daedalus, Vol.126, No.3, 1997, pp. 85–119.Google Scholar

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19. Ibid., p. 106.Google Scholar

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26. Ibid., p. 13.Google Scholar

27. Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed, chapter 3, pp. 55–76.Google Scholar

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31. Biuletyn Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy, No. 51, 1991, p. 55.Google Scholar

32. In this context, the term “indigenous” is applied to ethnic groups whose “ethnogenesis” took place on the territory of Ukraine. Apart from Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, Karaims and Krymchaky were included in this category. Other ethnic groups were merely minorities, since their ethnic homelands were in other states. On the case of Crimean Tatars as indigenous people, see Biuletyn Instytutu Demokratii Imeni Pylypa Orlyka, No. 4, 1996.Google Scholar

33. Programme of Rukh, Kiev, 1989.Google Scholar

34. For Kuchma's pro-Russian speeches when he was still prime minister, see Biuletyn Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy, No. 52, 1993.Google Scholar

35. Kuchma's inaugural speech was published in Uriadovyi Kurier, 21 July 1994.Google Scholar

36. Ibid. Google Scholar

37. Kuchma's speech commemorating the fifth anniversary of Ukrainian independence, Holos Ukrainy, 28 September 1995. This point was also made in the annual address of the president to parliament on 2 April 1996, the text of which was published in Holos Ukrainy, 4 April 1996.Google Scholar

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39. According to Article 93.2 of the constitution, the status of the indigenous people is to be regulated in a separate law, which, however, has not been adopted.Google Scholar

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41. The symbols are: the trident (tryzub), the blue and yellow flag, and the anthem “Ukraine Has Not Perished Yet.”Google Scholar

42. The overlap between the two political forces increased during Kuchma's second presidency, when national democrats, such as Ivan Zaiets and Mykola Zhulynskyi, were appointed members of the Cabinet of Ministers under the premiership of Victor Yushchenko.Google Scholar

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45. Kuchma's speech on the fifth anniversary of Ukraine's independence, Holos Ukrainy, 28 August 1996.Google Scholar

46. Kuchma's speech was published in Uriadovyi Kurier, 23 December 1995, and Holos Ukrainy, 22 December 1995.Google Scholar

47. Volodymyr Horbulin, the head of the National Security and Defence Council told the American senators in 1996, “At the centre of European continent, as a result of the third great attempt, a country was created, which in terms of its territory and the size of its population is comparable to France and Italy.” Uriadovyi Kurier, 19 September 1996.Google Scholar

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49. Ibid. The Cossack period was defined as a high point not only in reconstituting statehood but also in legal and military achievements. Parallels were drawn with England in terms of constitutional traditions, exemplified by the constitution of Pylyp Orlyk of 1710, and the Cossack army, which matched European standards.Google Scholar

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51. Uriadovyi Kurier, 23 December 1995.Google Scholar

52. Ibid. Google Scholar

53. Ibid. Google Scholar

54. Kuchma's speech at the celebrations to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the ZUNR in L'viv was published in Uriadovyi Kurier, 3 November 1998.Google Scholar

55. Yevhen Marchuk, “Siohodni Symfolom Ukrainskoi Natsionalnoi Ideii Maie Buty Ne Bulava, ale Kompiuter,” Den', 31 January 1998.Google Scholar

56. Serhiy Hrabovskyi, “Ukraina Nasha Sovkova,” Krytyka, Vol. 3, No. 23, 1999, p. 6.Google Scholar

57. Holos Ukrainy, 29 April 1992.Google Scholar

58. Vasyl Kremen', “Znamenii Vikhy Ukrainskoi Revolutsii,” Uriadovyi Kurier, 1 November 1997.Google Scholar

59. Ibid. Google Scholar

60. Vasyl Kremen', “UkrainA&Mdash;Evropeizatsia chy Retrochtorianstvo,” Uriadovyi Kurier, 14 May 1998.Google Scholar

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62. Volodymyr Kulyk, Ukrainskyi Natsionalism v Nezalezhni Ukrainii (Kiev, Centre for Research on National Security at the National University “Kyivo-Mohylansta Akademie” 1999), pp. 47–49. Also, the informal process of devolution of the cultural and language policies to the regions reduced the tensions surrounding the historical-ideological parameters of the state and the status of the Russian language.Google Scholar

63. For example, the speeches made at the celebrations of the eightieth anniversary of the ZUNR in L'viv in 1998 were not broadcast to other parts of Ukraine.Google Scholar

64. Vasyl Kremen', “Ukraine—Shlakh to Sebe,” Uriadovyi Kurier, 28 March 1998. Parts of that article were also published in Polityka i Chas, No. 1, 1999, pp. 29–35.Google Scholar

65. Vasyl Kremen' and Vasyl Tkachenko, Ukraina: Shlakh Do Sehe (Kiev: Druk 1998), p. 35.Google Scholar

66. Uriadovyi Kurier, 23 December 1995.Google Scholar

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68. Kremen', UkrainaShlakh Do Sehe, p. 6.Google Scholar

69. Kremen', “Znamenii Vikhy Ukrainskoi Revolutsii,” p. 5.Google Scholar

70. Yevhen Marchuk, “Siohodni Symfolom Ukrainskoi Natsionalnoi Ideii Maie Buty Ne Bulava, ale Kompiuter,” Den', 31 January 1998.Google Scholar

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72. Kuchma's speech on the eighth anniversary of Ukraine's independence, Holos Ukrainy, 26 August 1999.Google Scholar

73. Mykola Khvylovyi was a prominent member of the literati circles in Ukraine in the 1920s, and believed in the cultural superiority of Western Europe vis-à-vis Russia. See excerpts from Khvylovyi's pamphlets in Lindheim and Luckyi, eds, Towards an Intellectual History of Ukraine, pp. 267–277.Google Scholar

74. Kremen', “UkrainA&Mdash;Evropeizatsia chy Retrochtorianstvo,” p. 17.Google Scholar

75. Kremen', UkraineShlakh Do Sebe, p. 6.Google Scholar

76. Ibid. Google Scholar

77. Vasyl Kremen', “Na Terczakh Globalismu,” Polityka I Chas, No. 2, 1999, p. 56.Google Scholar

78. Yevhen Marchuk, “Siohodni Symfolom …,” p. 4.Google Scholar

79. See Dmytro Vydryn and Dmytro Tabachnyk, Ukraina na porozi XXI stolittia (Kiev: Lybid, 1996), and Volodymyr Hryniov, Nova Ukraina: Yakoiu II Bachu (Kiev: Abrys, 1995).Google Scholar

80. On the national democrats' critique of the books, see Viacheslav Chornovil, “Natsionalna Inteligentsia i Ukrainska Polityka,” Slovo I Chas, No. 2, 1996, pp. 24–27.Google Scholar

81. For details on Ukraine's membership of some of the subregional institutions, see Roman Wolczuk, “Ukraine and Europe: Relations since Independence,” Ukrainian Review, Vol. 44, No. 1, 1997, pp. 38–53. As has been pointed out, “Europe is now defined by the membership of different clubs. Today you are what you belong to. We're no longer governed by history or geography, but by institutions.” Robert Cooper, 'The Meaning of 1989,“ Prospect, December 1999, p. 29.Google Scholar

82. As Wilson put it, “plugging in the gaps” is the major task of Ukrainian nationalist historians. See Andrew Wilson, “National History and National Identity in Ukraine and Belarus,” in Graham Smith et al., Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Borderlands, p. 34.Google Scholar

83. Uriadovyi Kurier, 23 December 1995.Google Scholar

84. Holos Ukrainy, 28 September 1995.Google Scholar

85. Uriadovyi Kurier, 23 December 1995.Google Scholar

86. Kremen', “UkrainA&Mdash;Evropeizatsia chy Retrochtorianstvo,” p. 17.Google Scholar

87. An article by the Rukh member and head of the parliamentary commission on culture and spirituality Mykhailo Kosiv, published in Holos Ukrainy, 16 September 1994.Google Scholar

88. Oleksandr Trubushnyi, “Movna Polityka v Ukraini: Problemy i Priorytety,” Wiche, Vol. 7, No. 66, 1997, p. 100, and Vechirnyi Kyiv, 15 March 1996.Google Scholar

89. For a view on the role the state ought to play in the process of national revival, see Valeriy Kravchenko, “Ne Mahiya Sliv a Vse-Taki Vidrodzhenia,” Viche, Vol. 6, No. 51, 1996, pp. 68–79. One of the initiatives to put pressure on the government to support the Ukrainian language and culture was the National Congress of Ukrainian Intelligentsia, which was convened in Kiev in November 1995. The cultural elites gathered to protest at the continued discrimination against Ukrainian culture and language. Resorting to highly emotional rhetoric, the Congress pointed out that the status of the Ukrainian language was not only inferior to that of Russian, but was actually deteriorating, as the number of Ukrainian-language schools, nurseries, and publications had declined or stagnated since 1991. See the address of the leader of the First Congress of Ukrainian Intelligentsia to the president of Ukraine in Ukraina Moloda, 12 July 1996. On the Second Congress, see Vechirnyi Kyiv, 2 September 1997.Google Scholar

90. For example, Anatoliy Matvieenko, leader of the National Democratic Party of Ukraine, in an article “We Stand on the Ground of Ukrainianness [Ukrainstvo]” did not refer to the ethnocultural meaning of “Ukraininness” and instead focused exclusively on the economic issues. Anatoliy Matvieenko, “My Stoimo na Hrunti Ukrainstva,” Uriadovyi Kurier, 21 February 1996.Google Scholar

91. Marchuk, “Siohodni Symfolom …”, p. 4.Google Scholar

92. Uriadovyi Kurier, 3 November 1998.Google Scholar

93. Kuchma's speech commemorating the fourth anniversary of Ukraine's independence (in Kiev). Holos Ukrainy, 25 August 1995.Google Scholar

94. Kuchma's annual address to parliament, Holos Ukrainy, 4 April 1996.Google Scholar

95. Holos Ukrainy, 28 August 1996.Google Scholar

96. Interview with Serhiy Teleshun, “Ekonomichnyi Pragmatyzm Yak Czynnyk Ukrainskoi Ideii,” Uriadovyi Kurier, 13 January 1996.Google Scholar

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98. Mark von Hagen, “Does Ukraine Have a History?” Slavic Review, Vol. 54, No. 3, 1995, pp. 658–673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

99. As Szporluk pointed out, “Modern nationalism speaks the language of particularism but practices universal engagement: it measures its own performance according to universal values and standards, it looks up to those who are the most advanced.” Roman Szporluk, “Nationalism after Communism: Reflections on Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland,” Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 4, No. 3, 1998, p. 314. On particularism and universalism in the ideology of nationalism, see also Alan Finlayson, “Ideology, Discourse and Nationalism,” Journal of Political Ideologies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1998, pp. 99–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar