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Social Identification versus Regionalism in Contemporary Ukraine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Oksana Malanchuk
Oksana Malanchuk*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, [email protected]
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Extract

Because of the historic separation of western and eastern Ukraine under Polish and Russian spheres of influence, respectively, regional subpopulations have been seen as an important factor in Ukrainian politics. Arel and Wilson argue that the division on the all-important “Russian question” in Ukraine (relations with Russia and with the Russian-speaking minority) is increasingly regional: east and south versus the center and west. Hesli calculated the level of russification and industrialization in the various regions of Ukraine and concluded that both, together with geographic location, although interrelated, have their own bearing on variation in public opinion. Markus, however, has argued that despite economic, political and ethnic differences among Ukraine's regions, these differences pose less of a threat to reform than has sometimes been suggested. She further points out that speculation that the Donbass wants to unite with Russia “stems more from Russian claims to the area than from genuine indigenous sentiment.” Miller and colleagues, on the other hand, dispute the notion of regional differences independent of the socio-demographic characteristics of the local populations, challenging the conventional wisdom that there are regional political cultures that supersede any underlying demographic differences. They argue that national, political, economic and class identities represent the important cleavages in post-communist societies. The regional divide in Ukraine is thus not a foregone conclusion but a factor that bears closer examination.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 33 , Issue 3: Special Issue: Identity Formation and Social Problems in Estonia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan , September 2005 , pp. 345 - 368
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

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18. The L'viv/Donet'sk survey was a collaborative effort with L'viv State University in Ukraine with Dr Yaroslav Hrytsak and Professor Natalia Chernysh of the Institute for Historical Studies and forms the heart of this paper. My thanks to Victor Susak and Natalia Patsiurko for their help in the data collection and data management of the 1994 study.Google Scholar

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31. Also known as Uniates.Google Scholar

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