Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-8gtf8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-23T12:46:43.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Have We Learned about Ethnonational Identities in Ukraine?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2023

Volodymyr Kulyk Open the ORCID record for Volodymyr Kulyk [Opens in a new window]
Volodymyr Kulyk*
Affiliation:
Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Among various features of Ukrainian society that the world has started paying more attention to since the beginning of Russia’s full-blown invasion in February 2022, many commentators have pointed to a surprisingly strong and encompassing national identity. However, scholars of Ukrainian language and identity matters had for years demonstrated an increased civic attachment of Ukrainian citizens, including Russian speakers, and its greater salience compared with ethnic, linguistic, and regional identifications. This article seeks to highlight the main accomplishments and challenges of research on Ukrainian ethnic and national identity. It focuses on a gradual shift from the essentialist understanding of ethnicity as embodied in bounded groups to the interest in individuals’ contextually determined identifications by categories with a changing meaning. Another prominent part of the analysis is the relationship between Ukrainian ethnic and national identity and the amalgamation of these two apparently distinct phenomena into what I propose to call ethnonational identity.

Keywords

Ukraineethnic identitynational identityidentity changenation building
Type
State of the Field
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 51 , Issue 5: Special Issue on Peripheral Elites in West European Central States’ Apparatus , September 2023 , pp. 975 - 990
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of Nationalities

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arel, Dominique. 2002. “Interpreting ‘Nationality’ and ‘Language’ in the 2001 Ukrainian Census.” Post-Soviet Affairs 18 (3): 213–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arel, Dominique, and Khmelko, Valeri. 1996. “The Russian Factor and Territorial Polarization in Ukraine.’” The Harriman Review 9 (1–2): 81–91.Google Scholar
Aydingün, Ismail, and Aydingün, Ayşegül. 2007. “Crimean Tatars Return Home: Identity and Cultural Revival.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 33 (1): 113–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aza, Larysa. 1995. “Ridna mova. Z obochyny na bol’shak.” Viche, no. 11, 120–26.Google Scholar
Barrington, Lowell. 2001. “Russian-Speakers in Ukraine and Kazakhstan: ‘Nationality,’ ‘Population,’ or Neither?” Post-Soviet Affairs 17 (2): 129–58.10.1080/1060586X.2001.10641498CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrington, Lowell. 2021. “Citizenship as a Cornerstone of Civic National Identity in Ukraine.” Post-Soviet Affairs 37 (2): 155–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrington, Lowell, and Faranda, Regina. 2009. “Reexamining Region, Ethnicity, and Language in Ukraine.” Post-Soviet Affairs 25 (3): 232–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrington, Lowell W. 2002. “Examining Rival Theories of Demographic Influences on Political Support: The Power of Regional, Ethnic, and Linguistic Divisions in Ukraine.” European Journal of Political Research 41 (4): 455–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrington, Lowell W., and Herron, Erik S.. 2004. “One Ukraine or Many? Regionalism in Ukraine and Its Political Consequences.” Nationalities Papers 32 (1): 53–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bremmer, Ian. 1994. “The Politics of Ethnicity: Russians in the New Ukraine.” Europe-Asia Studies 46 (2): 261–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 1996. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bureiko, Nadiia, and Moga, Teodor Lucian. 2019. “The Ukrainian–Russian Linguistic Dyad and Its Impact on National Identity in Ukraine.” Europe-Asia Studies 71 (1): 137–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fournier, Anna. 2002. “Mapping Identities: Russian Resistance to Linguistic Ukrainisation in Central and Eastern Ukraine.” Europe-Asia Studies 54 (3): 415–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Debra A. 2016. “Our Language: (Re)Imagining Communities in Ukrainian Language Classrooms.” Journal of Language, Identity & Education 15 (3): 165–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giuliano, Elise. 2018. “Who Supported Separatism in Donbas? Ethnicity and Popular Opinion at the Start of the Ukraine Crisis.” Post-Soviet Affairs 34 (2–3): 158–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, Henry E., Kulyk, Volodymyr, Onuch, Olga, and Sasse, Gwendolyn. 2020. “The Situational Plasticity of Ethnic Identity: Experimental Evidence from Ukraine.” Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, online, November 6.Google Scholar
Hansen, Holley E., and Hesli, Vicki L.. 2009. “National Identity: Civic, Ethnic, Hybrid, and Atomised Individuals.” Europe-Asia Studies 61 (1): 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hrytsak, Yaroslav. 2000. “National Identities in Post-Soviet Ukraine: The Case of Lviv and Donetsk.” In Cultures and Nations of Central and Eastern Europe: Essays in Honor of Roman Szporluk, edited by Gitelman, Zvi, Hajda, Lubomyr A., Himka, John-Paul, and Solchanyk, Roman, 263–81. Cambridge, MA: Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Hrytsak, Yaroslav. 2007. “Istoriia dvokh mist: L’viv i Donets’k u porivnial’nii perspektyvi.” Ukraïna Moderna, no. special issue, 27–60.Google Scholar
Janmaat, Jan Germen. 2000. Nation-Building in Post-Soviet Ukraine: Educational Policy and the Response of the Russian-Speaking Population. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
King, Charles, and Melvin, Neil. 1998. Nations Abroad: Diaspora Politics and International Relations in the Former Soviet Union. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Kolstø, Pål, and Edemsky, Andrei. 1995. Russians in the Former Soviet Republics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Korostelina, Karina V. 2013. “Mapping National Identity Narratives in Ukraine.” Nationalities Papers 41 (2): 293–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koziura, Karolina. 2014. “Everyday Ethnicity in Chernivtsi, Western Ukraine.” Anthropology of East Europe Review 32 (1): 1–21.Google Scholar
Kulyk, Volodymyr. 2001. “The Politics of Ethnicity in Post-Soviet Ukraine: Beyond Brubaker.” Journal of Ukrainian Studies 26 (1–2): 197–221.Google Scholar
Kulyk, Volodymyr. 2011. “Language Identity, Linguistic Diversity and Political Cleavages: Evidence from Ukraine.” Nations and Nationalism 17 (3): 627–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulyk, Volodymyr. 2013. “Language and Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine: Transformation of an Unbroken Bond.” Australian & New Zealand Journal of European Studies 5 (2): 14–23.Google Scholar
Kulyk, Volodymyr. 2014. “Soviet Nationalities Policies and the Discrepancy between Ethnocultural Identification and Language Practice in Ukraine.” In The Historical Legacies of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, edited by Beissinger, Mark and Kotkin, Stephen, 202–21. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulyk, Volodymyr. 2016. “National Identity in Ukraine: Impact of Euromaidan and the War.” Europe-Asia Studies 68 (4): 588–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulyk, Volodymyr. 2018. “Shedding Russianness, Recasting Ukrainianness: The Post-Euromaidan Dynamics of Ethnonational Identifications in Ukraine.” Post-Soviet Affairs 34 (2–3): 119–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulyk, Volodymyr. 2019. “Identity in Transformation: Russian-Speakers in Post-Soviet Ukraine.” Europe-Asia Studies 71 (1): 156–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulyk, Volodymyr, and Hale, Henry E.. 2022. “Imperfect Measures of Dynamic Identities: The Changing Impact of Ethnolinguistic Characteristics on Political Attitudes in Ukraine.” Nations and Nationalism 28 (3): 841–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulyk, Volodymyr, Hale, Henry E., Onuch, Olga, and Sasse, Gwendolyn. 2021. “The Meaning of Belonging: COVID-19 and the Fluidity of Ukrainian Identity.” Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, online, May 5.Google Scholar
Kuzio, Taras. 1998. Ukraine: State and Nation Building. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kuzio, Taras. 2001. “Identity and Nation-Building in Ukraine: Defining the ‘Other.’” Ethnicities 1 (3): 343–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuzio, Taras. 2003. “Census: Ukraine, More Ukrainian.” Russia and Eurasia Review 2 (3).Google Scholar
Laitin, David D. 1998. Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, David J. 1996. “Why Have Donbas Russians Not Ethnically Mobilized like Crimean Russians Have? An Institutional/Demographic Approach.” In State and Nation Building in East Central Europe: Contemporary Perspectives, edited by Micgiel, John S., 317–30. New York: Institute of Central Europe, Columbia University.Google Scholar
Munro, Neil. 2007. “Which Way Does Ukraine Face? Popular Orientations toward Russia and Western Europe.” Problems of Post-Communism 54 (6): 43–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nedozhogina, Olena. 2019. “Redrawing Symbolic Boundaries after Maidan: Identity Strategies among Russian-Speaking Ukrainians.” National Identities 23 (3): 277–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Loughlin, John. 2001. “The Regional Factor in Contemporary Ukrainian Politics: Scale, Place, Space, or Bogus Effect?” Post-Soviet Geography and Economics 42 (1): 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Onuch, Olga, and Hale, Henry E.. 2018. “Capturing Ethnicity: The Case of Ukraine.” Post-Soviet Affairs 34 (2–3): 84–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parashevin, M.A. 2016. “Rezul’taty natsional’nykh shchorichnykh monitorynhovykh opytuvan’ 1992-2016 rokiv.” In Ukraїns’ke suspil’stvo 1992-2016: Stan ta dynamika zmin. Sotsiolohichnyi monitorynh, edited by Vorona, V. and Shul’ha, M., 427–545. Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.Google Scholar
Pirie, Paul S. 1996. “National Identity and Politics in Southern and Eastern Ukraine.” Europe-Asia Studies 48 (7): 1079–1104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polese, Abel, and Wylegala, Anna. 2008. “Odessa and Lvov or Odesa and Lviv: How Important Is a Letter? Reflections on the ‘Other’ in Two Ukrainian Cities.” Nationalities Papers 36 (5): 787–814.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pop-Eleches, Grigore, and Robertson, Graeme B.. 2018. “Identity and Political Preferences in Ukraine—before and after the Euromaidan.” Post-Soviet Affairs 34 (2–3): 107–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riabchouk, Mykola. 1998. “Civil Society and Nation Building in Ukraine.” In Contemporary Ukraine: Dynamics of Post-Soviet Transformation, 81–98. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Riabchuk, Mykola. 2019. Dolannia ambivalentnosti. Dykhotomiia ukraïns’koï natsional’noï identychnosti—Istorychni prychyny ta politychni naslidky. Kyiv: IPiEND.Google Scholar
Sasse, Gwendolyn, and Lackner, Alice. 2018. “War and Identity: The Case of the Donbas in Ukraine.” Post-Soviet Affairs 34 (2–3): 139–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sasse, Gwendolyn, and Lackner, Alice. 2019. “War and State-Making in Ukraine: Forging a Civic Identity from Below?” Ideology and Politics, no. 1, 75–98.Google Scholar
Sereda, Viktoriya. 2020. “‘Social Distancing’ and Hierarchies of Belonging: The Case of Displaced Population from Donbas and Crimea.” Europe-Asia Studies 72 (3): 404–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shul’ga, N.A. 2011. “Rodnoi iazyk: nadumannyi konstrukt ili real’nost’.” Russkii yazyk, literatura, kul’tura v shkole i vuze, no. 1, 3–5.Google Scholar
Shulman, Stephen. 2004. “The Contours of Civic and Ethnic National Identification in Ukraine.” Europe-Asia Studies 56 (1): 35–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shulman, Stephen. 2005. “National Identity and Public Support for Political and Economic Reform in Ukraine.” Slavic Review 64 (1): 59–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Graham, Law, Vivien, Wilson, Andrew, and Bohr, Annette. 1998. Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Borderlands: The Politics of National Identities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Graham, and Wilson, Andrew. 1997. “Rethinking Russia’s Post-Soviet Diaspora: The Potential for Political Mobilisation in Eastern Ukraine and North-East Estonia.” Europe-Asia Studies 49 (5): 845–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stebelsky, Ihor. 2009. “Ethnic Self-Identification in Ukraine, 1989–2001: Why More Ukrainians and Fewer Russians?” Canadian Slavonic Papers 51 (1): 77–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasiutyns’kyi, V. O., ed. 2012. Rosiis’komovna Spil’nota v Ukraїni: Sotsial’no-Psykholohichnyi Analiz. Kyiv: Institute of Social and Political Psychology, National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences.Google Scholar
Wilson, Andrew. 2002. “Elements of a Theory of Ukrainian Ethno-National Identities.” Nations and Nationalism 8 (1): 31–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolczuk, Kataryna. 2000. “History, Europe and the ‘National Idea’: The ‘Official’ Narrative of National Identity in Ukraine.” Nationalities Papers 28 (4): 671–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar