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18
March
2022
|
13:39
Europe/London

The history and evolution of Ukrainian national identity Ƶ podcast

What does it mean to be a Ukrainian? In this episode of , we talk to three experts about the origins of Ukrainian nationalism, and how Ukrainian national identity is changing.

And we hear about a rare archive of Ukrainian dissident literature from the Soviet era, and why itƵs now in danger.

History is central to understanding why the Russian invasion of Ukraine happened, and what might happen next. And in this episode, weƵre exploring the history of Ukrainian national identity.

Dominique Arel, professor and holder of the chair of Ukrainian studies at the University of Ottawa in Canada, explains how Ukrainian national identity started to emerge in the 19th century, when the territory that later became Ukraine was split between the Russian empire to the east and the Austro-Hungarian empire to the west.

ƵThe birth of Ukrainian nationalism as a mass social movement really crystallised by the first world war,Ƶ says Arel. ƵIt was far more developed in western Ukraine than in eastern Ukraine because in the Russian empire, Ukrainian nationalism was repressed and even the Ukrainian language was banned.Ƶ Under the Soviet era, while Ukrainian nationalism was initially encouraged under Vladimir Lenin, it began to be seen as a Ƶnationalist resistance that needed to be wiped outƵ, explains Arel.

When Ukraine became independent in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, anyone living on the territory had a right to citizenship. At that time, a little less than identified as ethnically Russian and three-quarters as ethnically Ukrainian Ƶ alongside minorities, including Crimean Tatars. But researchers point to shifts in those identities since then.

Volodymyr Kulyk is head research fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He spoke to us from Kyiv. ƵTo be Ukrainian used to mean to be Ukrainian by descent to be a Ukrainian origin or in the Soviet official parlance to be of Ukrainian nationality,Ƶ he says, explaining that nationality was Ƶprimarily understood in ethnic, hereditary termsƵ.

But now, Kulyk says itƵs changing and more and more people are identifying as Ukrainian. ƵThat means that more and more people who used to be Russian or who used to be other ethnicities, start identifying as Ukrainians.Ƶ

The of 2013-14 marked a turning point. Olga Onuch, a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Manchester in the UK, has been part of a number of studies surveying Ukrainians about their views and identity, and their politics. She says theyƵve found that Ƶcivic identity or state attachment was extremely strong amongst Ukrainians, across linguistic and across regionsƵ, and that it was increasing over time. ƵAs the conflict escalated, so did support for the Ukrainian state,Ƶ says Onuch.

is also tracking shifts in political attitudes. This was incremental at first, in the years following 2014, but after the election of the current president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in 2019, Onuch says there was a Ƶhuge jumpƵ in support for Ukraine joining the EU and NATO, which she calls the ƵZelensky effectƵ.

Our second story brings a personal perspective to some of this history. During the Soviet era, when Ukrainian language was repressed, it was dangerous to publish Ukrainian political and cultural texts within Ukraine. One man, Wolodymyr ƵMirkoƵ Pylyshenko, in the diaspora Ukrainian community in the US began collecting this dissident literature. His daughter, Katja Kolcio, an associate professor of dance and environmental studies at Wesleyan University in the US, tells the story of the archive Ƶ and why itƵs now in danger. (From 36 minutes)

And Moina Spooner, news editor for The Conversation in Nairobi, Kenya, recommends some analysis marking the two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. (From 48m)

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can find us on Twitter , on Instagram at or via email. You can also sign up to The ConversationƵs .

Newsclips in this episode are from , , , , and .

You can listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our , or find out how else to .The Conversation

, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, and , Assistant Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast,

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

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