Santraukos Final

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Santraukos Final VILNIUS UNIVERSITY Jovita Pranevi čiūt÷ FACTORS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY FORMATION IN CIS AREA: BELARUS AND UKRAINE CASE STUDY Summary of doctoral dissertation Social science, political science (02S) Vilnius, 2009 0 The dissertation was prepared at Vilnius University, Institute of International Relations and Political Science, 2004 – 2008. Academic supervisor: prof. habil. dr. Evaldas Nekrašas (Vilnius University, social science, political science – 02 S) Council of Defence Chairman: Prof. dr. Raimundas Lopata (Vilnius University, social science, political science – 02 S) Members: Prof. dr. Alvydas Jokubaitis (Vilnius University, social science, political science – 02 S) Prof. dr. Gediminas Vitkus (Lithuanian Military Academy, Vilnius University, social science, political science – 02 S) Assoc. dr. Vladas Sirutavi čius (Lithuanian Institute of History, humanities, history – 05 H) Assoc. dr. Tomas Janeli ūnas (Vilnius University, social science, political science – 02 S) Opponents: Prof. dr. Algis Krupavi čius (Kaunas University of Technology, social science, political science – 02 S) Assoc. dr. Dovil ÷ Jakni ūnait ÷ (Vilnius University, social science, political science – 02 S) The public defence of the dissertation will be held at 3 p.m. on the 19th June, 2009 at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University. Address: Vokie čių g. 10, LT- 01130, Vilnius, Lithuania The summary of the doctoral dissertation was sent out on the 19th May, 2009. Dissertation is available at Vilnius University Library. 1 VILNIAUS UNIVERSITETAS Jovita Pranevi čiūt÷ NACIONALIN öS TAPATYB öS FORMAVIMOSI VEIKSNIAI NVS ERDV öJE: BALTARUSIJOS IR UKRAINOS ATVEJ Ų ANALIZ ö Daktaro disertacijos santrauka Socialiniai mokslai, politikos mokslai (02 S) Vilnius, 2009 2 Disertacija rengta 2004 – 2008 metais Vilniaus universitete Mokslinis vadovas: prof. habil. dr. Evaldas Nekrašas (Vilniaus universitetas, socialiniai mokslai, politikos mokslai– 02 S) Disertacija ginama Vilniaus universiteto Politikos moksl ų krypties taryboje: Pirmininkas Prof. dr. Raimundas Lopata (Vilniaus universitetas, socialiniai mokslai, politikos mokslai – 02 S) Nariai: Prof. dr. Alvydas Jokubaitis ( Vilniaus universitetas , Vilniaus universitetas, socialiniai mokslai, politikos mokslai – 02 S ) Prof. dr. Gediminas Vitkus (Lietuvos karo akademija, socialiniai mokslai, politikos mokslai - 02 S ) Doc. dr. Vladas Sirutavi čius (Lietuvos istorijos institutas, humanitariniai mokslai, istorija – 05 H) Doc. dr. Tomas Janeli ūnas ( Vilniaus universitetas, socialiniai mokslai, politikos mokslai - 02 S ) Oponentai: Prof. dr. Algis Krupavi čius (Kauno technologijos universitetas, socialiniai mokslai, politikos mokslai – 02 S ) Doc. dr. Dovil ÷ Jakni ūnait ÷ ( Vilniaus universitetas, socialiniai mokslai, politikos mokslai – 02 S ) Disertacija ginama viešame Politikos moksl ų krypties tarybos pos ÷dyje 2009 m. birželio 19 d. (penktadienis) 15 val. VU Tarptautini ų santyki ų ir politikos moksl ų institute, Vokie čių g. 10, 402 aud. Disertacijos santrauka išsiuntin ÷ta: 2009 m. geguž ÷s 19 d. Disertacij ą galima perži ūr÷ti Vilniaus universiteto bibliotekoje. 3 FACTORS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY FORMATION IN CIS AREA: BELARUS AND UKRAINE CASE STUDY Summary Research problem and relevance In recent years the importance of identity formation process was brought back from the margins of international relation to the analysis mainstream. The deciding events were first of all the collapse of the Soviet Union, secondly, the September 11, 2001. The inability of scholars to predict those events brought back the analysis of identity to the main focus of the research of the theorist of international relations, helped to emphasize the forgotten importance of the nationalism studies. On one hand, the identity has become as important object of analysis as security, usage of conventional and non-conventional armaments, foreign policy process or the international organization. On the other hand, for some theorists’ the identity has become a constitutive part of the analysis and the main explaining factors of the changes in the international relations. Depending on author or paradigm the authors are attributed, the identity could be treated both way as dependent and independent variable, having in mind that the different levels of analysis could be used in order to understand the identity. While analyzing existing academic works and research papers on identity the biggest problem is the theoretical specialization: different authors choose to analyze one or two separate aspects of identity ignoring the rest of possible aspects. This normative decision is taken in order to escape the broadness of the identity concept. This lead to narrow analysis or specialization on one or two aspects of the identity, which makes difficult to compare two different cases of identity analysis and leads to the relativist conclusion that the context is the only one deciding factors. Brubaker, Bugrova, Graham Smith and other propose to analyze not identity as the concept, but the process of the identity formation. Brubaker and Cooper use the concept of identification. This process could be influences by number of factors, which, on one hand, could be common for several countries in one region, on the other hand, do not let to underestimate the influence of the combination of several factors. Although the specialization and narrow analysis of the certain aspects of the identity or only some parts of the multi-level process of the identity formation proved 4 the predictions of the spread of radical nationalism in the post-Soviet area to be wrong too. Nonetheless in this area there are some examples of the clashes of ethnic interests and local military conflicts over the territory. The least successive analysis still are those case studies were nor civic neither ethnic identity has been consolidated. Complicated identity formation process in Belarus and Ukraine are two of those cases. Analyzing identity of Belarus and Ukraine, scholars try to answer the question why the process of nation-building in today’s Belarusian and Ukrainian territory is so different, why national identity is so fragmented in Ukraine and why Belarus is called denationalized state, how policy, economic and cultural issues influence the formation of identity in those countries. There are numerous competing theories explaining this situation in Belarus and Ukraine. In this dissertation the factors influencing identity formation are analyzed. I claim that the specialized one aspect analysis of the interior and exterior as well as nonmaterial (ideal) and material factors of identity formation does not explain the situation in Belarus and Ukraine. The goal of the work is to prove that in order to explain the processes of the identity formation in Belarus and Ukraine all factors should be analyzed and the list of the most important factors has to be proposed. In other words one factor analysis lacks explanatory ability, especially in post soviet area. Research goal and objectives The overall goal of the work is to explain the differences of the formation of identity in the post soviet area, through the analysis of the material and non material as well as internal and external factors of the identity formation in Belarus and Ukraine. The main objectives of this dissertation are: 1. To segregate the factors of identity formation from the theoretical literature. 2. To propose the typology of the identity formation factors. 3. To propose the matrix of the identity factors – geographical, military, legal, economical, political and cultural. 4. Using the proposed theoretical matrix to analyze the identity formation factors of Belarus and Ukraine: a. By researching the process of state-building in Belarus and Ukraine; b. By analyzing the opinion of ruling regime and opposition towards the process of state building and ethnic policy; 5 c. By analyzing Russian public opinion on Belarus and Ukraine as well as by analyzing the foreign policy of Russia towards Belarus and Ukraine; d. By analyzing public opinion of the societies of Belarus and Ukraine on ethnicity, state and foreign policy issues especially with Russia. 5. To draw the priority list of the identity formation factors in Belarus and Ukraine. Thesis: 1. Ethnic identity in the post soviet area (CIS countries) is inseparable from the state-building process: a. In CIS countries governments have an proactive ethnic policy; b. In CIS countries government and opposition compete for the different ethnic policies to be institutionalized. 2. The most important identity formation factors in Belarus are external and internal material factors: a. Internal political factors (political institutions and ideology) dominates over the internal cultural factors (history, stateness tradition, language) in Belarus. b. The economical welfare is the most important identification factor in Belarus, which makes external material factors (Russian economical and energy policies) able to influence the whole national identity formation process. 3. The most important identity formation factors in Ukraine are internal nonmaterial factors such as political and cultural: a. The internal cultural factors (language, culture, traditions, history narratives) defines not only the Ukrainian nation, but as well the state of Ukraine; b. The domination of internal nonmaterial factors (mostly political factors such as idea of state and nation, political values) over the material internal factors (political institutions, economical factors)
Recommended publications
  • Nationality Issue in Proletkult Activities in Ukraine
    GLOKALde April 2016, ISSN 2148-7278, Volume: 2 Number: 2, Article 4 GLOKALde is official e-journal of UDEEEWANA NATIONALITY ISSUE IN PROLETKULT ACTIVITIES IN UKRAINE Associate Professor Oksana O. GOMENIUK Ph.D. (Pedagogics), Pavlo TYchyna Uman State Pedagogical UniversitY, UKRAINE ABSTRACT The article highlights the social and political conditions under which the proletarian educational organizations of the 1920s functioned in the context of nationalitY issue, namelY the study of political frameworks determining the status of the Ukrainian language and culture in Ukraine. The nationalitY issue became crucial in Proletkult activities – a proletarian cultural, educational and literary organization in the structure of People's Commissariat, the aim of which was a broad and comprehensive development of the proletarian culture created by the working class. Unlike Russia, Proletkult’s organizations in Ukraine were not significantlY spread and ceased to exist due to the fact that the national language and culture were not taken into account and the contact with the peasants and indigenous people of non-proletarian origin was limited. KeYwords: Proletkult, worker, culture, language, policY, organization. FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM IN GENERAL AND ITS CONNECTION WITH IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL TASKS ContemporarY social transformations require detailed, critical reinterpreting the experiences of previous generations. In his work “Lectures” Hegel wrote that experience and history taught that peoples and governments had never learnt from history and did not act in accordance with the lessons that historY could give. The objective study of Russian-Ukrainian relations require special attention that will help to clarify the reasons for misunderstandings in historical context, to consider them in establishing intercommunication and ensuring peace in the geopolitical space.
    [Show full text]
  • Reflections on Stalin and the Holodomor
    Reflections on Stalin and the Holodomor Françoise Thom Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV) Abstract: The mechanisms and the chronology of the great crimes committed by totalitarian regimes are now well documented. While they may explain the mechanics of these events, they do not always explain why they transpired. The implementation of Stalin’s policy of collectivization and de-kulakization relied on dissimulation. Moreover, the pace of collectivization was justified by external threats, initially from Great Britain and Poland, and later extending to Japan. This made possible the branding of any political adversary as a traitor. As long as Stalin faced organized political opposition, he was unable to launch any maximal policies. After the defeat of Trotsky in December 1927 he was able to create crisis situations that ultimately furthered his own power. The offensive he unleashed against the peasants became a means of reinforcing his increasing dictatorship. The collectivization campaign employed the rational argument that the backward countryside needs to modernize production. Its ultimate aim, however, was the crushing of an independent peasantry. There are enlightening comparisons that can be made between collectivization in China and the USSR, which are explored in this essay. The resistance to collectivization was particularly strong amongst Ukrainians. Stalin, who had long regarded the national question as inseparable from the peasant question, deliberately chose mass starvation to break resistance to his will. The history of these events was for a long time shrouded in great secrecy until it began being discussed by Western scholars, becoming a matter of considerable debate between the “totalitarian” and “revisionist” schools of Soviet historiography.
    [Show full text]
  • Linguistic Ukrainization, 1923-1932
    3 Linguistic Ukrainization, 1923-1932 On October 10, 1920, Stalin published an artide in Pravda that for the first time authoritatively announced the Soviet policy of korenizatsiia: "It is nec- essary that all Soviet organs in the borderlands-the courts, the administration, the economic organs, organs oflocal power (as well as Party organs)-be com- posed to the greatest possible degree of people who know the customs, habits and language of the local population. »1 Korenizatsiia, as definitively formulated at party congresses in March 1921 and April 1923, consisted of two major tasks: the creation of national elites (Affirmative Action) and the promotion oflocal nationallanguages to a dominant position in the non-Russian territories (lin- guistic korenizatsiia). Linguistic korenizatsiia would prove much more difficult to achieve. Between April 1923 and December 1932, central party and soviet organs issued dozens of resolutions urging the immediate implementation of linguistic korenizatsiia. Local republican and oblast authorities issued hundreds, if not thousands, of similar decrees. Nevertheless, linguistic korenizatsiia failed almost everywhere. Why? 1 initially assumed that central authorities must have been sending mixed signals, publidy trumpeting the need for irnmediate korenizatsiia while privately letting it be known that this public rhetoric was largely for show. 1 was wrong. Not only did the soft-line soviet bureaucracies in charge of nationalities policy, such as TsIK's Soviet of Nationalities and VTsIK's Nationalities Depart- ment, vigilantly monitor the implementation of korenizatsiia, hard-line organs attached to the party's Central Committee were equally vigilant. The Orgburo 11. Stalin, "Politika sovetskoi vlasti po natsional'nomu voprosu v RDssü" (1920), in Marksizm i natsional'no-kolonial'nyi Tlopros (Moscow, 1934): 62.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ukraine Crisis in the Northeast-Asian Comparative Perspective (Report Under the Taiwan Fellowship-2019 for Scholars)
    Dr. Igor PILIAIEV (Kyiv, Ukraine) The Ukraine Crisis in the Northeast-Asian Comparative Perspective (Report under the Taiwan Fellowship-2019 for Scholars) There is no East, and there is no West. There is no end to the sky. There is no East, and there is no West, Father has two sons. There is no East, and there is no West, There are sunrise and sunset, There is a big word — EARTH! Olzhaz Suleymenov1 From “The Sunny Nights” collection (1962)2 INTRODUCTION In one of his latest appearances in media in the early 2017 one of America's main foreign policy strategists, Zbigniew Brzezinski, pointed out with much anxiety that "strategic insecurity is now a fact of life on a scale heretofore not experienced by the now increasingly vulnerable humanity"3. Structural shocks in the geopolitical, institutional, socio-cultural and security architectonics of the Eastern European and post-Soviet space which have occurred with epicenter in Ukraine, have sharply delimited and polarized the regional transformation and integration processes. The extreme aggravation of the Ukraine- Russia relations as a result of Euromaidan’s victory in Kyiv, followed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the hybrid armed conflict in Donbas4, has exposed deep 1 Olzhaz Suleymenov is National Writer of Kazakhstan, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to UNESCO in 2002-2018. 2 English translation made by Igor Piliaiev from the Russian original. 3 Brzezinski, Z. How To Address Strategic Insecurity In A Turbulent Age. HuffPost. January 3, 2017. Retrieved from: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-china-russia- relations_us_586955dbe4b0de3a08f8e3e0?section=us_world (Last accessed: 10.10.2018).
    [Show full text]
  • The Great Famine in Soviet Ukraine: Toward New Avenues Of
    THE GREAT FAMINE IN SOVIET UKRAINE: TOWARD NEW AVENUES OF INQUIRY INTO THE HOLODOMOR A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Science By Troy Philip Reisenauer In Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major Department: History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies June 2014 Fargo, North Dakota North Dakota State University Graduate School Title THE GREAT FAMINE IN SOVIET UKRAINE: TOWARD NEW AVENUES OF INQUIRY INTO THE HOLODOMOR By Troy Philip Reisenauer The Supervisory Committee certifies that this disquisition complies with North Dakota State University’s regulations and meets the accepted standards for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: Dr. John K. Cox Chair Dr. Tracy Barrett Dr. Dragan Miljkovic Approved: July 10, 2014 Dr. John K. Cox Date Department Chair ABSTRACT Famine spread across the Union of Social Soviet Republics in 1932 and 1933, a deadly though unanticipated consequence of Joseph Stalin’s attempt in 1928 to build socialism in one country through massive industrialization and forced collectivization of agriculture known as the first Five-Year Plan. This study uses published documents, collections, correspondence, memoirs, secondary sources and new insight to analyze the famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine and other Soviet republics. It presents the major scholarly works on the famine, research that often mirrors the diverse views and bitter public disagreement over the issue of intentionality and the ultimate culpability of Soviet leadership. The original contribution of this study is in the analysis of newly published primary documents of the 1920s and 1930s from the Russian Presidential Archives, especially vis-à-vis the role of Stalin and his chief lieutenants at the center of power and the various representatives at the republic-level periphery.
    [Show full text]
  • Stanislav Kulchytsky the Ukrainian Holodomor Against the Background
    Stanislav Kulchytsky The Ukrainian Holodomor against the Background of the Communist Onslaught, 1929–1938 Thirty years ago Ukrainians in North America devoted a great deal of effort to publicizing the famine of 1932–33, which had been covered up in the Soviet Union. An important result of those efforts was the creation of the US Congressional Commission on the Ukraine Famine in October 1984. In the fall of 1986 the commission’s executive director, James Mace, issued its first report.1 The policy of perestroika, announced by Mikhail Gorbachev, helped the leaders of the Communist Party of Ukraine realize that the Stalinist ban on information about the famine had lost its validity. In a jubilee address delivered in the Kremlin on 2 November 1987 Gorbachev himself touched upon the “excesses” that had taken place during collectivization but said nothing about the famine.2 But on 25 December 1987, in a jubilee address dedicated to the seventieth anniversary of the establishment of Soviet rule in Ukraine, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPU, Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, acknowledged that a famine, supposedly caused by a poor harvest, had taken place. There can be no doubt that this admission was made with the agreement of the Politburo of the CC CPSU, of which Shcherbytsky was a member. Ukrainian scholars were then permitted to research the famine, and they took full advantage of this opportunity. In the last twenty-five years, thousands of publications have appeared on this topic. In November 2006, when the draft law “On the Holodomor of 1932–1933 in Ukraine” was introduced in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, scholars at the Institute of 1 See Investigation of the Ukrainian Famine, 1932–1933: First interim report of meetings and hearings of and before the Commission on the Ukraine Famine, held in 1986 (Washington, DC, 1987).
    [Show full text]
  • Memory Politics: the Use of the Holodomor As a Political And
    Memory Politics: The Use of the Holodomor as a Political and Nationalistic Tool in Ukraine By Jennifer Boryk Submitted to Central European University Nationalism Studies Program In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Advisor: Professor Maria Kovacs Budapest, Hungary 2011 CEU eTD Collection Abstract This thesis serves as an analysis of the construction and use of the Holodomor as the defining cornerstone of Ukrainian national identity, and the creation of a victim narrative through this identity. The thesis addresses the steps taken by Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine to promote this identity, constructed in the diaspora, by seeking the recognition of the Holodomor as genocide by Ukraine‘s population, as well as the international community. The thesis also discusses the divergent views of history and culture in Ukraine and how these differences hindered of acceptance of Viktor Yushchenko‘s Holodomor policies. CEU eTD Collection Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1 The Trials of Nation Building ............................................................................................................... 3 Chapter One: The National Identity Formula ...................................................................................... 10 1.1 Creation of a Collective Narrative ..............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Protection of Poland's Volhynian Ukrainian Minority, 1921-1939
    Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2009 The Failure of the Entente: Protection of Poland's Volhynian Ukrainian Minority, 1921-1939 Suzanne Elizabeth Scott Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES THE FAILURE OF THE ENTENTE: PROTECTION OF POLAND’S VOLHYNIAN UKRAINIAN MINORITY, 1921-1939 By SUZANNE ELIZABETH SCOTT A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2009 The members of the committee approve the thesis of Suzanne Elizabeth Scott defended on June 24, 2009. Edward Wynot Professor Directing Thesis Jonathan Grant Committee Member Robert Romanchuk Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii For Bernard Szabo iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There have been many, many people along the way who have helped with research and/or encouraged me. First and foremost, I would like to thank my committee members for the countless hours spent discussing sources and instructing me in Russian and Ukrainian. I would also like to thank the people who helped direct my research at various institutions. Vadim Altskan, the program coordinator for the International Archival Division in the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. bantered with me in Ukrainian and loaned me his copy of Shmuel Spector’s The Holocaust of Volhynian Jews, 1941-1944. Not an ideal “bed time story,” but vital for this thesis.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ukrainian Holodomor
    "I address you on behalf of a na6on that lost about ten m;Won people as a result of the Holodomor genodde ... We ;ns;st that the world learn the truth about all cn"mes aga;nst human;ty. Thjs ;s the only way we can ensure that cn"mjnals w;[l no longer be emboldened by ;ndifference". Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine 1 Starving girl on a street of Kharkiv, the then capital of Soviet Ukraine. Photo by Winnerberger, 1933* Children comprised one-third of the Holodomor victims in Ukraine. Large numbers of children were orphaned and became homeless. IN THE EARLY 1930s, in the very heart of Europe - in a region considered to be the Soviet THE HOLODOMOR Union's breadbasket - Stalin's (based on two Ukrainian words: Communist regime committed a holod - 'hunger, starvation, horrendous act of genocide famine,' and moryty - 'to induce against millions of Ukrainians. suffering, to kill') was an act of An ancient nation of agriculturists genocide against the Ukrainian people, committed by the Soviet was subjected to starvation, one Communist regime in 1932-33. of the most ruthless forms of * In order to prevent exposure of the terrible crimes against the Ukrainian population to both the Soviet and foreign public, the repressive Soviet regime posed a strict controls over any trips into the areas hit by starvation. For this reason, there were few photos taken . 2 #The Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine (Holodomor), which took from 7 million to 10 million innocent lives and became a national tragedy for the Ukrainian people".
    [Show full text]
  • Soviet Religious Policy in the Ukraine in Historical Perspective
    Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe Volume 2 Issue 3 Article 1 6-1982 Soviet Religious Policy in the Ukraine in Historical Perspective Bohdan R. Bociurkiw Carleton University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree Part of the Catholic Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Eastern European Studies Commons Recommended Citation Bociurkiw, Bohdan R. (1982) "Soviet Religious Policy in the Ukraine in Historical Perspective," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 2 : Iss. 3 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol2/iss3/1 This Article, Exploration, or Report is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Paper No. 1 SOVIET RELIGIOUS POLICY IN THE UKRAINE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Bohdan R. Bociurkiw* Carleton University In retrospect, Soviet religious policy in the Ukraine has to be viewed from two main vantage points: The first is that of the centrally formulated program on religion which the regime attempted to implement through­ out the USSR; the second vantage point is that of the peculiar ecclesiastical situation and the nationality and peasant problems in the Ukraine which led to modifications and occasional aberrations in the application of this central church policy to Ukrainian conditions. In analysing these twin facets of the regime's ecclesiastical policy in this second-largest Union Republic, we shall focus mainly on its majority denomination -- the Orthodox Church -- which during most of the inter-war period was split into three major groupings -- the 1 2 Patriarchal and the Renovationist Churches (the local extensions of "All­ 3 Union" churches), and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) .
    [Show full text]
  • The Beholder‟S Eye: How Self-Identification and Linguistic Ideology Affect Shifting Language Attitudes and Language Maintenance in Ukraine
    The Beholder‟s Eye: How Self-Identification and Linguistic Ideology Affect Shifting Language Attitudes and Language Maintenance in Ukraine Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Susan Elizabeth Crangle Vdovichenko, M.A. Graduate Program in Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures The Ohio State University 2011 Dissertation Committee: Professor Ludmila Isurin, Advisor Professor Brian Joseph Professor Daniel Collins Copyright by Susan Elizabeth Crangle Vdovichenko 2011 Abstract The people of Ukraine are divided by politics, culture, and language. The Dnipro river, which cuts through the country, separates not only east from west, but also a region with a Russian-speaking majority from one with a Ukrainian-speaking majority. This has been the situation for centuries, although in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union the politics of language have become more heated. In the west, nationalism is strong, and Ukrainian tends to be seen as a part of the cultural history of the people. In the east, Russian has been considered the language of the educated, while Ukrainian is often still perceived as a language suitable for only villages. After nearly a century of widely varying linguistic policies and customs, Ukrainian was declared the sole official language of Ukraine in 1991. Two decades later, language issues remain critical. Ukrainian had been perceived by many as substandard, and in some parts of Ukraine, negative stereotypes about Ukrainian and its speakers remain; conversely, positive ideology is increasing, connecting Ukrainian to patriotism and culture.
    [Show full text]
  • The Study of the Holodomor and Ukrainian Historiography
    Towards a Decentred History: The Study of the Holodomor and Ukrainian Historiography Olga Andriewsky Trent University Abstract: This article reviews research on the Holodomor By historians of Ukraine since the late 1980s. It examines the dominant trends in historiography, the major findings, and the current state of the field. The field itself, it argues, has grown consideraBly and there now exists a critical Body of scholarship on the suBject. For the past two decades, this scholarship has largely Been dominated By the deBate about whether the Holodomor constitutes genocide. Much of the focus has Been on illuminating the policies, methods, and intentions of the Soviet leadership and there have Been notable advances in these areas of research. Social history on this topic, on the other hand, remains largely underdeveloped. Some historians of Ukraine have Begun to study the Holodomor “from Below” and to explore the larger social and cultural consequences of de-kulakization, collectivization, and the Terror- Famine. This approach is crucial, the author suggests, to understanding the exceptional nature of the era. In terms of patterns of migration, family structure, religious practices, social identity, status and ranking, and attitudes towards power, authority, and political participation, the Holodomor Era fundamentally changed the way Ukrainians lived. In this respect, it represents a turning point, as momentous as perhaps any in Ukrainian history. Keywords: Famine, Ukrainian historiography, Genocide, Stalin ong before scholars in the Soviet Union and the West turned their L attention to the suBject of the Famine of 1932–33 in Ukraine, there was an audience anxious for the story to Be told.
    [Show full text]