Does Ukraine Have a Colonial History?: An Ethnographic Perspective on New Answers to Old Questions

• In Event: Eastern European Sovereignty after Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the nostalgic ideology of "Russkiy Mir" that frames so much Russian propaganda about the war, has brought questions of colonialism and postcolonialism back into the center of academic debate about the histories and politics of Eastern Europe. This paper returns to some of the major theoretical questions lifted up by Mark von Haagen in his 1995 essay "Does Ukraine Have a History?"--and centered in the discourse about the historiography of Ukraine as a so-called "non-historical nation" that followed von Haagen's initial provocation--and applies them to emergent discourses engaged by Ukrainians to make new and urgent claims about Ukrainian sovereignty. Specifically, this paper incorporates ethnographic research carried out in Ukraine since the full scale invasion began as well as Ukrainian activism, advocacy, and media circulating beyond Ukraine's borders to describe diverse, emergent discursive moves in popular culture that assert distinctions between Ukraine and Russia and frame Ukrainian sovereignty as the subject of long-lasting historical erasure by quasi-colonial Russian powers.

Author

• Jennifer J. Carroll, North Carolina State U