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Understanding Regionalism and the Politics of Identity in Ukraine's Eastern Borderlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Peter Rodgers
Peter Rodgers*
Affiliation:
Kharkiv National State University of Ukraine [email protected]
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Extract

The results of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections highlighted the continued existence of regional diversity across Ukraine and the huge task the Ukrainian state faces in reconciling divisions and creating an all-encompassing modern Ukrainian identity. This article seeks to examine perceptions and understandings of identity change in Ukraine from three cities, namely Luhans'k, Kharkiv and Sumy, all adjacent to the Russian-Ukrainian state border, in an effort to deconstruct the mega-region of ‘eastern Ukraine’ and in doing so, argue for the need for further academic scrutiny of inherent nuances within ‘east’ and ‘west’ Ukraine, differences, which more large-scale quantitative research fails to uncover. Data generated from in-depth interviews in schools with school directors, history teachers and schoolchildren are analysed to demonstrate how individuals reflect on the importance of the ‘region’ in Ukraine and secondly the role of Russia in Ukraine's identity politics. The impact of these results on Ukrainian politics and society as well as our understandings of regional diversity across Ukraine is outlined in the conclusions.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , May 2006 , pp. 157 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

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