DOCSLIB.ORG

Identity and Violence: Cases in Georgia

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Identity and Violence: Cases in Georgia IDENTITY AND VIOLENCE: CASES IN GEORGIA by NINO KEMOKLIDZE A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies Department of Political Science and International Studies School of Government and Society College of Social Sciences University of Birmingham July 2014 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This thesis explores the nexus between identity construction and the outbreak of violence. It focuses on the cases of violence in Georgia in the early 1990s, in particular – Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The author takes an historical, process-based approach to the question of how violence “came about” in Georgia. Using previously unpublished archival material and extensive, in-depth interviews, the author traces the process of the development of inter-ethnic relations in Georgia over the course of several decades and provides a detailed examination of how these relations evolved from tensions to violence. As the thesis demonstrates, ethnic fears and hostility between Georgians on the one hand and Abkhaz and Ossetians on the other – one of the important contributing factors to the outbreak of violence – were neither deep-rooted nor long-standing; rather, they were socially constructed. Still, despite its socially constructed nature, the author argues for bringing ethnicity back in the debate and proposes a more flexible, multi-layered analytical framework in order to integrate constructivist and primordialist views on ethnicity and ethnic group formation in the study of ethnic conflicts and violence. The result is a shift of analysis from self-centered manipulative elites to more “boundedly rational” actors who operate within a socially constructed reality shaped by Soviet nationality policies and historical and cultural narratives (embedded in myths and metaphors of ethnic groups concerned). To my biggest critics: My parents and my brother Acknowledgements There are many people who have helped me out enormously during the research process of this thesis and my stays in four different countries while doing this research. However, firstly, I would like to thank my supervisors Kataryna Wolczuk and Stefan Wolff for their constructive criticism, helpful comments, support and understanding during my research. I was first introduced to Stefan’s work back in 2005/6 when I was doing my master’s degree and little I knew back then that in just a few years’ time he would be supervising my own research project. Many thanks are also due to Jeremy Smith and Cerwyn Moore who started out as my supervisors and continued to provide me advice and support during the rest of my PhD period. I also thank Kasia and Ces for providing me with reference letters on a number of occasions often on rather short notices. I am also very grateful to Jeremy whose interest in my PhD topic is what brought me to CREES and Birmingham in the first place. Alongside with him I was also involved in the project on “Georgian Nationalism and Soviet Power” (funded by the Academy of Finland) that served as a turning point in my PhD research. I would also like to kindly acknowledge the help and support provided by Marea Arries and Patricia Carr at the department over the years as well as other members of CREES, in particular, Galina Yemelianova, Derek Averre, and Deema Kaneff. Without the financial support, however, I would have never been able to consider doing this project in the first place so I am extremely grateful for financial assistance provided by the Oversees Research Student Award Scheme (ORSAS), Kirkcaldy Postgraduate Scholarship, Postgraduate Incentive Fund (all from the University of Birmingham), and Open Society Institute’s Global Supplementary Grant Program-Europe (OSI/GSGP). A number of departmental and school travel funds allowed me to attend several conferences and helped me towards the costs of my fieldwork. BASEES Grant for Postgraduate Research funded by the British Association of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies was also very helpful in conducting the final stage of my fieldwork. During the 2010/11 academic year I was a visiting researcher at the Department of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Norwegian Institute of Foreign Affairs (NUPI) in Oslo thanks to generous funding from the Norwegian Research Council – Yggdrasil–Young Guest and Doctoral Researchers’ Annual Scholarship for Investigation and Learning in Norway (project number: 202697/V11). I thank everyone at the department there for making me feel so welcome and for their most helpful comments on my initial PhD proposal. My very special thanks are due to the Head of the Department Helge Blakkisrud. In 2013 I also spent a year at Uppsala University’s Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies (UCRS) in Sweden thanks to generous funding from Swedish Institute – Visby Programme for PhD and Post-Doctoral Studies in Sweden. I could not have asked for a better place for writing- up my PhD thesis. My very special thanks are due to Research Director Li Bennich-Bjorkman and to all my colleagues there who made me feel so at home. Some of them also provided me with helpful comments on my PhD, in particular, Ausra Padskocimaite and Vaida Obelene (from UCRS) and Niklas Nilsson (from Södertörn University). In Georgia I would like to thank the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) and the staff at the Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for their help and guidance during my archival research. I also thank Otar Burkiashvili for his assistance with tracking down some of the archival material when I was unable to physically be in Tbilisi. Many others were very helpful in putting me in touch with many of my respondents and sharing rare literature on the subject; in particular, I would like to thank Endzela Machavariani and Gela Gurgenidze. A number of people have also read some of the earlier chapters of my PhD and I would like to thank them for their most helpful comments. My friends Kamala Imranli-Lowe, Steve de Klerk, Katharina Hoffman and John Horne provided me with much appreciated constructive criticism and I thank them for their time, kind words and encouragement as well as for their friendship over the years. Thanks are also due to all the participants of the Mekrijärvi Workshop in Finland in 2012 (organized by Jeremy Smith) for their insightful comments on some of my earlier thoughts on Soviet nationality policies in Georgia. I would also like to acknowledge that this thesis was copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by Martin Rickerd. Needless to say, however, I am responsible for any errors. Many thanks are also due to my friends who continued to provide support whether in Georgia, Birmingham, or elsewhere. My very special thanks are due to Roaa Ali and Alex Moore for being my family in Birmingham, for taking me to and picking me up from the airport, storing my things, and hosting me more times than I can remember. Many thanks also (in no particular order) to Dheepika Vadivale, Zijun Li, Kerry O’keffe, Lina Aylott, Olubayode Ero-Phillips, Nigel Lowe, Vickie Hudson, Daniela Ionescu, Rustam Stolkin, David Bendell, Aleksandra Duda, Sylwia Czort, Yannis Chatzidakis, Ingerid Opdahl, Martin Widmann, Sean Roberts, Cai Wilkinson, Larisa Kosygina, Linda Ahall, Jonna Nyman, Philippe Lassou, Adele Del Sordi and my Georgian friends in the UK and abroad Nana Gugeshashvili, Maka Uberi, Anna Iakobidze- Wilding, Anna Koiava, Tamuna Turkiashvili, Maia Chankseliani, Nino Vadakaria, Dimitri Gugushvili, Aleko Kupatadze, Gia Ubiria for helping me out in one way or another during my PhD. Thank you also to many others in various parts of the world who have kept me in their thoughts on a long distance. I would also like to thank each and every one of my respondents who agreed to be interviewed or who gave up their time to talk to me informally. Thank you for sharing your insights and personal stories (and often your personal archives). I hope I did justice to the information you provided. Last but not least, many thanks to my parents and my brother for teaching me how to love my country without being blind. I thank them for their unconditional love and support that has kept me going. It is to them that I dedicate this work. Table of Contents List of Tables List of Abbreviations Chapter 1 – Introduction 1. Research Context 1 2. Why is Georgia Interesting? 5 3. Research Questions 12 4. Locating the Study 17 5. Overview of the Chapters 19 Chapter 2 – Conceptual and Theoretical Framework 1. Introduction 22 2. Defining Key Concepts 2.1. Ethnicity 24 2.1.1. Ethnic Group 25 2.1.2. The Soviet Understanding of a “Nation” 27 2.2. Ethnic Conflict and Violence 28 3. Theories of Ethnicity and Ethnic Violence 33 3.1. Primordialism 35 3.1.1. Sociobiological Approaches 36 3.1.2. Cultural Approaches 38 3.2. Ethnic Hatreds: Ancient or Modern? 40 3.3.Instrumentalism 42 3.4. Rational Choice Theories of Violence 43 3.4.1. (In)Security Approaches 44 3.4.2. Economic Approaches 49 3.5. The Ethno-Symbolist Corrective? 53 Ethno-Symbolism and Violence 54 3.6. Constructivism 57 How Are Identities Formed?: Constructivist Views 59 4.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Politics of Multilingualism in Roma Education in Early Soviet Union and Its Current Projections Marushiakova, Elena; Popov, Vesselin
    www.ssoar.info Politics of multilingualism in Roma education in early Soviet Union and its current projections Marushiakova, Elena; Popov, Vesselin Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Marushiakova, E., & Popov, V. (2017). Politics of multilingualism in Roma education in early Soviet Union and its current projections. Social Inclusion, 5(4), 48-59. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v5i4.1128 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY Lizenz (Namensnennung) zur This document is made available under a CC BY Licence Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden (Attribution). For more Information see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.de Social Inclusion (ISSN: 2183–2803) 2017, Volume 5, Issue 4, Pages 48–59 DOI: 10.17645/si.v5i4.1128 Article Politics of Multilingualism in Roma Education in Early Soviet Union and Its Current Projections Elena Marushiakova * and Vesselin Popov School of History, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, KY16 9BA, UK; E-Mails: [email protected] (E.M.), [email protected] (V.P.) * Corresponding author Submitted: 14 August 2017 | Accepted: 16 October 2017 | Published: 22 December 2017 Abstract This article presents the history of the politics of multilingualism (or lack thereof) in regard to Roma (formerly known as ‘Gypsies’). In the 1920s and 1930s in the newly established Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, against a backdrop of pro- claimed principles of full equality of all peoples1 living in the new state, commenced a rapid creation of schools for Roma children with instruction in Romani mother-tongue along with special training of Roma teachers.
    [Show full text]
  • 2. Historical, Cultural and Ethnic Roots1
    2. HISTORICAL, CULTURAL AND ETHNIC ROOTS1 General features of ethnic identity evolution history, to develop autonomous state structures, in the eastern part of Europe their lives have mostly been determined by out- side forces with diverse geopolitical interests. Differences may be observed between Eastern The uncertain political situation of past cen- and Western Europe in terms of the ethnogenesis turies gave rise – along the linguistic, cultural of the peoples and the development of their eth- and political fault lines – to several ethnic groups nic identity. In the eastern half of the continent, with uncertain identities, disputed allegiances rather than be tied to the confines of a particular and divergent political interests. Even now, there state, community identity and belonging have exist among the various groups overlaps, differ- tended to emerge from the collective memory of ences and conflicts which arose in earlier periods. a community of linguistic and cultural elements The characteristic features of the groups have not or, on occasion, from the collective memory of a been placed in a clearly definable framework. state that existed in an earlier period (Romsics, In the eastern half of Europe, the various I. 1998). The evolution of the eastern Slavic and ethnic groups are at different stages of devel- Baltic peoples constitutes a particular aspect of opment in terms of their ethnic identity. The this course. We can, therefore, gain insights into Belarusian people, who speak an eastern Slavic the historical foundations of the ethnic identity language, occupy a special place among these of the inhabitants of today’s Belarus – an identity groups.
    [Show full text]
  • © Copyright by Ann Littmann Rappoport 1978 SOVIET POLICIES TOWARD ITS UNION REPUBLICS: A
    790820A RAPPOPORT t ANN LITTMANN SOVIET POLICIES TDWARD ITS JNION REPUBLICS A COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS OF "NATIONAL INTEGRATION". THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, PH.D., 1978 University, Microfilm s International .TOO N / I I U HOAD. ANN AHIJOH. Ml 4H1<K> © Copyright by Ann Littmann Rappoport 1978 SOVIET POLICIES TOWARD ITS UNION REPUBLICS: A COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS OF "NATIONAL INTEGRATION" DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Ann Littmann Rappoport ***** The Ohio State University 1978 Reading Committee: Approved By Philip D. Stewart, Ph.D. R. William Liddle, Ph.D. Loren K. Waldman, Ph.D. M) Adviser \ Department of Political Science Dedicated to the most special Family with all my love. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A lengthy appendix might be in order to adequately acknowledge those persons who provided valuable assistance to this dissertation. Many of their names do indeed appear throughout the footnotes and bibliography of this study. Certain others are acknowledged for the inspira­ tion they provided me through their dedicated teaching. My sincere appreciation goes to my thesis and Major Adviser, Prof. Philip D. Stewart, who supported and somehow tactfully guided this undertaking. I also thank Prof. R. William Liddle and Prof. Loren K. Waldman, for their incisive comments, especially at the time of this study's "debut" presentation. Professor Waldman1s suggestion to investigate the Lieberson Diversity Measure as a means for approaching my compositional problem, made a great independent contribution toward this study while also serving to provide my Entropy Index with additional credibility. In preparing and typing this manuscript, the work of Mrs.
    [Show full text]
  • Title of Thesis: ABSTRACT CLASSIFYING BIAS
    ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: CLASSIFYING BIAS IN LARGE MULTILINGUAL CORPORA VIA CROWDSOURCING AND TOPIC MODELING Team BIASES: Brianna Caljean, Katherine Calvert, Ashley Chang, Elliot Frank, Rosana Garay Jáuregui, Geoffrey Palo, Ryan Rinker, Gareth Weakly, Nicolette Wolfrey, William Zhang Thesis Directed By: Dr. David Zajic, Ph.D. Our project extends previous algorithmic approaches to finding bias in large text corpora. We used multilingual topic modeling to examine language-specific bias in the English, Spanish, and Russian versions of Wikipedia. In particular, we placed Spanish articles discussing the Cold War on a Russian-English viewpoint spectrum based on similarity in topic distribution. We then crowdsourced human annotations of Spanish Wikipedia articles for comparison to the topic model. Our hypothesis was that human annotators and topic modeling algorithms would provide correlated results for bias. However, that was not the case. Our annotators indicated that humans were more perceptive of sentiment in article text than topic distribution, which suggests that our classifier provides a different perspective on a text’s bias. CLASSIFYING BIAS IN LARGE MULTILINGUAL CORPORA VIA CROWDSOURCING AND TOPIC MODELING by Team BIASES: Brianna Caljean, Katherine Calvert, Ashley Chang, Elliot Frank, Rosana Garay Jáuregui, Geoffrey Palo, Ryan Rinker, Gareth Weakly, Nicolette Wolfrey, William Zhang Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Gemstone Honors Program, University of Maryland, 2018 Advisory Committee: Dr. David Zajic, Chair Dr. Brian Butler Dr. Marine Carpuat Dr. Melanie Kill Dr. Philip Resnik Mr. Ed Summers © Copyright by Team BIASES: Brianna Caljean, Katherine Calvert, Ashley Chang, Elliot Frank, Rosana Garay Jáuregui, Geoffrey Palo, Ryan Rinker, Gareth Weakly, Nicolette Wolfrey, William Zhang 2018 Acknowledgements We would like to express our sincerest gratitude to our mentor, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • An Introductory History of Soviet Uzbek Academics 1924-1960
    Sevket Akyildiz Sevket Akyildiz AN INTRODUCTORY HISTORY OF SOVIET UZBEK ACADEMICS 1924-1960 INTRODUCTION It took approximately 36 years (from 1924 to 1960) to establish from scratch the Soviet Central Asian academics in Uzbekistan. The investment, organization and political commitment shown by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU, est. 1925) in the predominately Muslim region of Central Asia resulted in a highly literate and educated local population. Indeed, by the 1960s, education provision in Soviet Central Asia surpassed that found in most of the socialist and non-socialist ‘Muslim majority’ countries of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.i In this paper I will clarify the story of the local academics in the Central Asian republic with the largest population: the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan (est. 1924). I will describe the origins of the Soviet academics and explain how they were educated, groomed and promoted by the CPSU for specific ideological, economic and cultural purposes between 1924 and 1960.1 During the historical period covered by this paper most academics employed in Uzbekistan were ethnic Slavs, Tatars or Jews. However, I will focus upon the emergence, development and integration of ethnic Uzbek academics into the higher education system during Stalin’s rule (a period when dissenting voices were purged from society) and in the decade following his death in 1953. I feel a study of the Soviet Central Asian academics is necessary because in Western literature there are some grey areas in the knowledge about the creation of local academic cadres from ‘working class’ origins in Soviet Central Asia.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnic Violence in the Former Soviet Union Richard H
    Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2011 Ethnic Violence in the Former Soviet Union Richard H. Hawley Jr. (Richard Howard) Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES ETHNIC VIOLENCE IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION By RICHARD H. HAWLEY, JR. A Dissertation submitted to the Political Science Department in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2011 Richard H. Hawley, Jr. defended this dissertation on August 26, 2011. The members of the supervisory committee were: Heemin Kim Professor Directing Dissertation Jonathan Grant University Representative Dale Smith Committee Member Charles Barrilleaux Committee Member Lee Metcalf Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii To my father, Richard H. Hawley, Sr. and To my mother, Catherine S. Hawley (in loving memory) iii AKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people who made this dissertation possible, and I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all of them. Above all, I thank my committee chair, Dr. Heemin Kim, for his understanding, patience, guidance, and comments. Next, I extend my appreciation to Dr. Dale Smith, a committee member and department chair, for his encouragement to me throughout all of my years as a doctoral student at the Florida State University. I am grateful for the support and feedback of my other committee members, namely Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Russification of Muslim Central Asia: an Overview of Language, Culture and Society
    Global Regional Review (GRR) URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/grr.2017(II-I).06 Russification of Muslim Central Asia: An Overview of Language, Culture and Society Vol. 2, No. I (2017) | Page: 70 ‒ 85 | DOI: 10.31703/grr.2017(II-I).06 p- ISSN: 2616-955X | e-ISSN: 2663-7030 | L-ISSN: 2616-955X Ayaz Ahmad* Sana Hussan† Syed Ali Shah‡ Abstract Russian influence in Muslim Central Asia was far reaching. The transformative effects of Russian presence first emerged in the administrative setup and governance, and soon it spread to the domain of education and sociocultural symbols. The Muslim Central Asian society lost its connection with the Muslim world in the neighborhood as Russian alphabets, lexemes and structures replaced the Arabic script. The Tsarist administration initiated these changes which culminated in the Soviet era when Central Asian Muslims were forced to cultivate Russian language and culture. However, the distrust among the Russian diaspora and Muslim Central Asian local population was deep seated. Once the Soviet Union fell, the demographic and linguistic changes were attacked by nationalists. Despite the post-1991 attempts, the Russian language is still dominant in Muslim Central Asia as compared to English and other modern European languages. Key Words: Muslim Central Asia, language Contact, Language Policy and Planning, Russification, Soviet Union. Introduction Russian Ethnic groups entered Muslim Central Asia as coloniser, which set a reactionary attitude against them in the national life of Muslim Central Asian people. Muslim Central Asia comprises of the present five former Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan besides Afghanistan.
    [Show full text]
  • Thinking About National Delimitation Policy of the Ussr: the Comparison of Weber’S Theory and That of Marx
    ISSN: 2158-7051 ==================== INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RUSSIAN STUDIES ==================== ISSUE NO. 6 ( 2017/2 ) THINKING ABOUT NATIONAL DELIMITATION POLICY OF THE USSR: THE COMPARISON OF WEBER’S THEORY AND THAT OF MARX KEISUKE WAKIZAKA* Summary This article compares Marxist theory with that of Max Weber, analyzing the process of national delimitation policy of the Soviet Union. Bolshevik defined the USSR as a step before the communist society and needed to create the condition of modern capitalist society so that communist revolution would occur. Therefore the Soviet Communist Party directed to fostering “national identity and national culture” of every groups on the basis of the right of self-determination. However, this policy caused the differences of political and economic structure among each Soviet Republics and enlarged them. Namely, it did not cause the unification of proletariat and situation suitable for communist revolution, but caused the disintegration of the USSR and the different process of development of each Republic after that. In conclusion, it can be said that the Soviet national delimitation policy departed from Marxist theory, but followed and ended in practice as Max Weber emphasized Key Words: The Soviet Union, National Delimitation Policy, Korenizatsiya, Marx, Revolution, Communism, Weber, Social Action, Differences between Each Soviet Republics, Disintegration. Introduction Today, the reasons of disintegration of the Soviet Union and the social, economic and political developments in post-Soviet area are very often discussed all over the world and this agenda brought critical discussion also to the area of sociological theories. In the process of this discussion, International Journal of Russian Studies, No. 6/2 ( July 2017 ) 175 the Soviet Union’s national delimitation policy is one of the important topics as well as economic policy.
    [Show full text]
  • Impact on Ethnic Conflict in Abkhazia and South Ossetia
    University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School February 2019 Soviet Nationality Policy: Impact on Ethnic Conflict in Abkhazia and South Ossetia Nevzat Torun University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons, and the Political Science Commons Scholar Commons Citation Torun, Nevzat, "Soviet Nationality Policy: Impact on Ethnic Conflict in Abkhazia and South Ossetia" (2019). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7972 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Soviet Nationality Policy: Impact on Ethnic Conflict in Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Nevzat Torun A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Earl Conteh-Morgan, Ph.D. Kees Boterbloem, Ph.D. Bernd Reiter, Ph.D. Date of Approval February 15, 2019 Keywords: Inter-Ethnic Conflict, Soviet Nationality Policy, Self Determination, Abkhazia, South Ossetia Copyright © 2019, Nevzat Torun DEDICATION To my wife and our little baby girl. I am so lucky to have had your love and support throughout the entire graduate experience. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I want to thank Dr. Earl Conteh-Morgan, my advisor, for his thoughtful advice and comments. I would also like to thank my thesis committee- Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding the Narratives Explaining the Ukrainian Crisis
    ACTA UNIV. SAPIENTIAE, EUROPEAN AND REGIONAL STUDIES, 11 (2017) 63–96 DOI: 10.1515/auseur-2017-0004 Understanding the Narratives Explaining the Ukrainian Crisis: Identity Divisions and Complex Diversity in Ukraine1 Lodewijk SMOOR Department of European Studies University of Amsterdam lsmoor@hotmail .com Abstract. The central argument of this paper is that radical and opposing interpretations of the Ukrainian conflict in politics and media should be studied as offspring of broader narratives . These narratives can be better understood by examining the national identity of Ukraine . Since Ukrainian national identity shows a high degree of diversity, it offers a rich source of arguments for any party wanting to give an interpretation of the present Ukrainian crisis . Narratives explaining the crisis often ignore this complex diversity or deliberately use elements from it to construct the ‘desired’ narrative . Firstly, this paper defines four overarching narratives used in the current debate: the geopolitical, the nationalist, the structuralist, and the legal narrative. Secondly, this paper shows how various interpretations fitting within these narratives are all one way or another related to the divisions dividing Ukraine’s complex national identity . Examining the underlying divisions helps to explain the appeal of differing interpretations of the conflict in the West, Ukraine, and Russia. Especially the nationalist narrative and geopolitical narratives show how the complexity of Ukraine’s national identity is deliberately used to construct a narrative . The combined study of constructed narratives and Ukrainian national identity thus provides valuable material for any scholar or policymaker looking for a deeper understanding of the situation in Ukraine amidst a confusing information war .
    [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]
  • Proquest Dissertations
    CINEMA TRANSLATION IN POST-COMMUNIST UKRAINE: RECLAIMING THE UKRAINIAN IDENTITY MOTRIA SPOLSKY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER'S OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN TRANSLATION YORK UNIVERSITY, GLENDON COLLEGE TORONTO, ONTARIO DECEMBER 2009 Library and Archives Bibliothgque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'6dition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-62325-1 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-62325-1 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Biblioth&que et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by partelecommunication o u par Nntemet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation.
    [Show full text]