Przegląd Geopolityczny (Feb 2024)
Nowa tożsamość Ukrainy: między tradycją a koniunkturą geopolityczną
Abstract
The modern Ukrainian state that emerged from the ruins of the USSR in 1991 is characterized by a low degree of territorial integrity. The independent Ukraine was composed of several historically and culturally distinct parts, including the former eastern lands of neighboring states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania) annexed after World War II. Thus, the basic problem of the state became the creation of a new identity for all the regions that for the first time found themselves within a common political organism. There was no fundamental ideological platform based on the state's history or common national symbols. In this situation, two concepts of defining the identity of the lands of southwestern Rus, forming the newly established state, collided. On the one hand, in Russian Slavists' circles, the national distinctiveness of Ukraine is questioned, and the dominant concept there is that of one great nation consisting of three regional varieties: Greater Russians, Lesser Russians (or Ruthenians) and Belarusians. On the other hand, the view was promoted in Poland that Ruthenia (or Ukraine) was historically hostile to (Greater) Rus, or Moscow, which fostered the development of Ukrainian nationalism. As early as the mid-19th century it was a tool of anti-Russian policy, and in the 20th century it was used in clashes between the West and Russia. Ukrainian nationalism developed in the western part of today's Ukraine began to aspire to the position of an integral ideology for all Ukrainian lands. An important element of it, however, remains chauvinism, manifested by a lack of ethical foundations, a cult of violence and hatred of neighboring peoples. The Russian-Ukrainian war is creating a favorable ground for further cultivation of this ideology.
