Ukraine

Ukraine: From an Imperial Periphery to a Sovereign State
Author(s): Roman Szporluk

Source: Daedalus, Vol. 126, No. 3, A New Europe for the Old? (Summer, 1997), pp. 85-119
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
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Roman Szporluk
to a
From an Imperial Periphery

Sovereign State
Ukraine:
present
Ukraine's
concern
condition
to many
are matters
of
prospects
live outside
that country's
borders.
who
and
one
of the largest states of Europe,

geo
a population
to
France, with
graphically
comparable
only slightly
smaller
than that of Italy. To understand
the country
calls for
a
stem
with
host
of
that
Soviet
from
the
familiarity
problems
It is, after
all,
from its much

but also derive
past rela
longer pre-Soviet
period
tions with Poland and Russia. The historic relations between Ukraine
are too little understood,
in particular
and Russia
and the most
common
to the formulation
lead
misperceptions
of all manner
of
one
mistaken
for example,
Thus,
contemporary
author,
policies.
American
the
for
of
Ukraine's
writing
quarterly Foreign Policy,
speaks
future
into the greater Russian
state,"
imagining
"r?int?gration
in possession
1991 Russia
had been
that before
of Ukraine
for
three
"nearly
To consider
and
a half
centuries."1
to be that it is part of
condition
one
of
that implies
that its
misreading
history,
an
to cor
is
This
essay attempts
present
anomaly.
independence
a
rect such misreadings
brief sketch of the formation
by presenting
Russia
Ukraine's
of the modern
Ukrainian
the formation
of
an approach
looked?its
for recognition
Roman
normal
is a major
Szporluk
nation
the modern
and
nations
state
in the wider
of Poland
context
and Russia.
of
Such
an aspect of nationalism
that is often over
international
and the nationalists'
perspective
striving
reveals
within
isM.
the world
S. Hrushevskyi
Professor
community.
of Ukrainian
History
at Harvard
Univer
sity.
85
Roman Szporluk
86
of a nation
from the condition
emergence
as
case
in relation
such
the
of
Ukraine
periphery,
The
may be measured
by the extent
seeks to define
itself in a broader
Poland,
making
extending
beyond
or
of province
to Russia
and
a nation-in-the
to which
international
framework
the confines of the entity from which
it is
is not motivated
independence
at large; on the contrary,
the world
by a
it is
The
quest
"seceding."
to be cut off from
desire
for
to participate
in the affairs
of the
directly
the
of
another
but
world,
country
through
capital
by making
a capital out of one's own central
in the
place. To have standing
even
as
or
matters
in such
world,
sports, music,
science,
requires
driven
the wish
by
not
political
independence.
to be viewed
The making
of modern
Ukraine
needs
accordingly
context. The first Russian
in an international
nation-builders
wanted
the Ukrainians
Ukrainians
ans was
to be Russian;
to be Polish. The
formulated
by
those
Polish
nation-builders
national
who,
identity
in defining
wanted
of modern
"their"
Ukraini
Ukraine,
rejected
both the Russian
identity and the Polish identity. But while
Ukrainians
themselves
and
made
thus
by defining
from Russia
and Poland,
their own modern
identities
"seceding,"
also formed
the Poles
tion with,
and
the
as distinct,
the Russians
and
themselves
in a confronta
in relation
the West.2
those
to, their "Other,"
Thus,
in
the
of
War
Ukraine?St.
powers
history
Petersburg,
the realization
that while
saw, Istanbul?confronted
they com
a position
manded
vis-?-vis
of supremacy
their respective
"Ukraines,"
to the West,
to Europe,
in an unequal
they remained
relationship
involved
to "civilization"?which,
them as peripheries
indeed, viewed
(or,
In
nation
sum, then, the Ukrainian
may
say, "Ukraines").3
to
project was nothing more nor less than an undertaking
building
the peripheries
of several
transform
which
themselves
nations,
we
were
able
civilizational
were
eth,
peripheries
to communicate
seen
the West,
directly
in the nineteenth
century,
to be the centers
science,
of
with
and
of modern
the
and
civilization,
into a sovereign
larger world?with
even more
in politics,
entity
what
in the twenti
culture
economics.
and
Ukraine:
to a Sovereign State
87
GEOGRAPHY
BASIC FACTS OF HISTORICAL
Did Ukraine then become part of Russia three and a half centuries
ago? Only a small part. Before 1648, virtually all Ukrainians lived
the Polish-Lithuanian
within
eastern
whose
Commonwealth,
fron
tier extended to the east of the Dnieper River. Only after 1667 did
a part of that vast territory?today's
regions of Poltava and Chernihiv,
rule of the tsar in Moscow.
under
the city of Kiev?come
with
After
ruled more
Warsaw
1667,
Ukrainian
and more
territory
Ukrainians than did Moscow. The land to the west of the Dnieper
remained within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1793
1795. The Polish nobility was the dominant group in the area until
1830, if not 1863, and the Poles retained great social and cultural
until
influence
after
rule
century,
in St. Petersburg
tsar
the
of
influence
revolutions
whether
In the nineteenth
Polish
the Russian
remained
or
1917.4
Ukrainians
the
substantial.
very
of
lived
the
under
in Vienna,
the
emperor
true even on
This was
the East Bank, where the Poles had lost their dominant position as
as
early
seventeenth
the
if one
Ukraine
today's
Ukrainian-Polish
nexus
of Russia.
very clear some

national
revival
years ago,
in Galicia,
Ivan Rudnytsky
made
course
of the Ukrainian
1945.
As
entire
I and beyond, was
1848 until World War
so until
The
1939
determined
Polish
of ever-increasing
intensity,
against
struggle,
the province."5
Polish
landowners
remained
in Galicia and Volhynia
to understand
It is impossible
century.
sees it simply as a province
was
and remained
critical
"The
from
by the
in
dominance
a dominant
presence
until 1939.
As for southern
the Crimea,
Ukraine,
by
including
conquered
in
the Russian
the
late
from the Otto
century
eighteenth
Empire
man Turks,
this region showed
the continuing
influence
of centu
inWest Ukraine.
ries of Islamic rule. Very different was the situation
The
region
was
of Transcarpathia
new
1944,
ruled
The
It became
Czechoslovakia.
and
only
from Moscow.
Chernivtsi
trian province
after
that
Hungarian
the
date?for
region?the
of Bukovina?was
a part
uninterruptedly
gary from theMiddle Ages until 1919, when
northern
of Hun
itwas annexed to the
from 1939
again
first time ever?was
part
Romanian
of
the
from
former
1918
to
it
Aus
to 1940
and became Soviet only in 1940, being formally incorporated into
88
Roman Szporluk
the Soviet
Union
As
1944.
of L'viv,
the present
regions
and Ivano-Frankivsk,
from the
Ternopil,
they were part of Poland
were
in
middle
of the fourteenth
annexed
Austria
century,
by
as
eastern
"Galicia"
under
the
rule
and
remained
of
Vienna
1772,
after
for
until 1918. After a brief period of independence as the West

the region fell under
Ukrainian People's Republic, in 1918-1919,
the new
Soviet only when

that state
Poland,
becoming
and Soviet Russia.
by the armies of Nazi Germany
destroyed
came under
invasion
of the Soviet Union,
After Hitler's
Galicia
to
in
Soviet
It has unin
German
rule
1944.
occupation,
returning
the rule of
was
since then, under Soviet domi

been a part of Ukraine
terruptedly
nation
Ukraine
until 1991, part of an independent
today.
cannot
It is obvious
be viewed
that today's Ukraine
simply as a
part
of
a historic
or modern
Russian
Soviet
but
linked not only to Russia
intimately
Sea
the
Black
and
Central
region.
Europe
that the
end of the nineteenth
century
to call
Ukrainians
began
"Ukraine."
land
in the Russian
Cossacks)
nian name
for a people
to consider
all the
had
Ukraine,
country,
themselves
from
north
the
land
Europe
"borderland"
that
as
and
their home
lived as one
people
that newly
imagined
literal meaning
of
those
to do with
nothing
of
anyplace?a
in Polish
and Russian
parlance
a geographical
to designate
space
to the northern
the Don
Cossacks
both
of
of Hungary,
of Sumy and Kharkiv.
show
known
only
now
were
lands where
from
will
the
as
known
they
variously
or Little Russians
in Hungary,
(or
to adopt the Ukrai
Empire. The decision
several different
jurisdictions
living under
a "borderland"
country
being
common
the term "Ukraine,"
came
for centuries.
Ukraine
extending
counties
of
toward
It was
people
"Ukrainian"
that,
Rusnaks
in Austria,
Ruthenians
and
Before
also
is
space; Ukraine
to the countries
the mouth
Even
to points
at the map
of
the Danube
a casual
a vast
such
of
glance
could
territory
not
be
the
or "periphery"
of anything.
The fact is that for the
new
in their
existed
invented?it
and
only
they
large country
of
"Ukraine"
and
first
heads?the
promoters
defiantly
originators
of a nation.
them the dignity
that denied
the very name
adopted
was
of all the "Ukraines"
This putting
by
completed
together
1945?or
by 1954,
of Ottoman
Ukraine
ifwe
count
former
Turkey's
a single
became
the time when
"Ukraines,"
a center
with
entity,
Ukraine
Crimea.
of
It was
gained
then
its own.
one
that
If these
Ukraine:
facts
are too
nation
89
one
little known,
to be mentioned.
ought
was
nationalism
first
other myth
about
the origin of the
In the view of many,
Ukrainian
in Galicia,
formulated
under Austrian
rule,
to the East, to Russian

Ukraine. While
spread gradually
was
influence
indeed
the Austrian
the Austrian
great?giving
a unique
to
"Ruthenians"
modern
and law,
exposure
government
and
then
as belonging
to the
their international
facilitating
recognition
were
not
of
Slavic
idea
that
Ruthenians
community
people?the
they
in the
nation was
but part of a larger Ukrainian
first formulated
and
not
in Russia,
and
East,
Austria's
Ruthenians
It was
in Austria.
after
to that Ukraine
and
that
careful
decided,
reflection,
long
to belong.
that they consti
they wished
They never believed
even though,
to more
tuted the core of Ukraine
favorable
owing
that
NATION
What
To
FORMATION:
leading
in the national
role
century.
SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
is a Nation?
understand
tion,
to play
they claimed
in the twentieth
conditions,
movement
it helps
in Ukrainian
the problems
involved
to draw on theoretical
with
such
nationalism,
beginning
tion" is and how
it comes
and
nation-forma
historical
literature
as what
basic
on
a "na
questions
into being. For these purposes,
Benedict
excellent
is
Anderson's
formula
invaluable.
Anderson
that
argues
a nation
an imaginary
commu
is an "imagined
community"?not
is both
and sovereign."6
"limited
National
nity?that
inherently
a people
ism accomplishes
it "nationalizes"
three things:
by sepa
in them the right of national
rating them from others,
by vesting
a national
it constructs
self-determination;
history
by attributing
national
ideas
it nationalizes
to individuals
in the prenational
age; and
as
the
space
territory,
property
designating
the boundaries
of the homeland.
As for typology
of
who
lived
a certain
of the nation,
Liah Greenfeld
nations,
tions
in her Nationalism:
a very useful
set of defini
provided
to Modernity.
Five Roads
Greenfeld
that
nations?with
modern
the exception
of the English,
argues
who
formed
the first modern
nation?were
all created
through
confrontation
consciousness
with
other
in Russia,
has
nations.
she
For
says, was
example,
formed
modern
as
national
the West
im
90
Roman Szporluk
consciousness
and on government
itself upon Russian
pressed
poli
cies. This happened
and after the reign of Peter the Great.
during
was
an integral
"The West
indelible
national
part of the Russian
no
sense
a
consciousness.
in
There
would
be
nation
if
simply
being
not
the West
did
exist."7
Nations,
are a very modern
so understood,
The
phenomenon.
nation could be defined as a community of people living within
was
the prevailing
in
definition
of nation
territory?this
specific
as a community
the West?or
of language
and culture,
which
in Central
nations
Eu
became
the way
of defining
and Eastern
of nation
subordinated
rope. This modern
understanding
economic
social status, and religion to nationality.
condition,
in
nation
its revolutionary
the
gave nationalism
sovereignty
subversive
acter,
rived
towards
the old
authority
nations were
class,
Vesting
char
of
the monarchy,
de
without
unimaginable
from religion. Modern

national
identities
included
ideas of popular
sovereignty.
Creating
on
status
in
of
the
of
nation
the
and
future
what
process
deciding
come
to
construction
would
be termed subnational
identities. What
or nationalism
to one nation
to say,
is, needless
or protonational
to others. What
is a full-fledged
lan
one
a
to
to
nation's
is
nationalist
dialect
another
guage
regional
in modern
it is common
nation-states
nation's
adherent.
for
Thus,
to be treated as national
(or "standard"),
only one language
taught
is subnational
national
in the schools,
used in the public
sphere.
In the history
of modern
nation-formation
ways
been
of treating
followed.
rank
of dialects.
in Europe
several
differences
have
internal cultural-linguistic-ethnic
a tendency
to
In France,
for example,
there was
as
one
and
official
and
"national,"
accordingly
impose
language
to the
to reduce
in status, by coercion
if necessary,
all the others
The
cally fragmented
see their way
to imposing
how politi
of Germany,
recognizing
it entered
the modern
era, could not
such uniformity.
they toler
Prudently,
ated linguistic variations,
though only within
leaders
itwas
family of "German"
yet another
strategy
British
nation
was
when
and
institutions,
speech,
was
followed.
According
created
and Welsh.
Scottish,
English,
or eliminating
their
hood
above
a broadly defined
traditions.
to Linda
the existing
national
them
Without
denying
institutions?England,
In Britain,
the
Colley,
identities?
their nation
Scotland,
and
From an Imperial Periphery to a Sovereign State
Ukraine:
Wales
not
did
cease
a common
against
common
to exist?new
external
were
bonds
91
created
"Other."8
Periodization
a view
This
essay takes
Miroslav
Hroch,
tion. Hroch's
tions
has
schema
of
enjoyed
of a modern
and
different
international
as an
nation
economic
from
the
change,
a given
that
scholar
distinguished
the formation
wide
formation
social
rather
another
of
advanced
by
of nation-forma
the so-called
small
na
treats
the
He
recognition.9
internal process
generated
transition
from
feudalism
by
to
or "small nation"?
ethnic
group
as a point of departure?is
seen to pass
to the
the
academic
and
the
cultural,
through
reaching
finally
as
a
or
of
reflection
of
stage
consequence
political
development,
In the first stage, the main
actors are
the rise of capitalist
society.
in which
capitalism,
whose
existence
is assumed
scholars
shape
stage,"
who
gather
to its narrative.
in which
material
This
about
the nation's
initial
stage
takes on
the narrative
awareness
significance
as a means
a unifying
of
in
culture;
the
in
the
which
final, political
stage,
by
idea of national
seeks political
identity
expression.
as politi
In this essay I regard nation-building
and nationalism
cal ab initio?even
in nationalist
when
those engaged
activities
or
or
denied
intent
insisted
that
their
sole
any political
meaning,
facilitating
due course
growing
is succeeded
object was a scholarly

or local history.
Such
Beyond
relations
speak meaningfully
or
material
goods,
as
social
dissemination
of domination
of relations
(by no means
of communication,
and
mation,
of symbols,
and
this
of popular
culture,
folklore,
understanding
a view
is grounded
in an understanding
of
not
in
the
classic
formulation
political
only
on the legitimate
use of force); there is also
as something
(that is, a monopoly
as well
economic
power,
over
the production
and
power
ideas.
of
and give
history
the
"cultural
by
is followed
and
cultural
power?power
of
values,
symbols,
or coercion
we may
of production
unimportantly)
the production
and
also
and distribution
relations
of
of infor
and dissemination
ideas, and values. Thus,

ques
"national-awakeners,"
virtue
of their endeavors
established
structures,
power
tioning by
are quite
and the values
power
them,
relationships,
upholding
an
in
at
is
what
least
under
obviously
engaged
inherently
political
to
the
of
their
is
work
subvert
the
impact
taking;
finally
sphere of
92
Roman Szporluk
in which
domination,
ideological
are the supreme
instruments
of
One
Hroch's
sider
that
not
in the analysis
here, does
presented
approach,
he terms a small
revival of what
the national
an aspect
Nation-formation
of the unmaking
is thus not
also
identity,
Rise
Nation's
is Another
Fall
Nations
and values,
symbols
social power.10
of another,
already
only an inter-national
con
not
nation
existing
process
is
nation.
in the
it by Greenfeld
(that is, a process
sovereign
involving
given
as an old ("large") nation
an
intra-state
it
is
also
process,
states);
new nations.
into two (or more)
and is reconstituted
disintegrates
to the nation
that retains
"new" then properly
The epithet
applies
sense
the name
of
the
large,
nation
nation
former
or historic;
for aside
conventionally
the continuity
from
a new
in important
respects,
becomes,
Such an approach
thus created.
other nation
or Bohemia
of Ukraine,
the making
Slovakia,
of
as old,
such a
views
as any
of
classified
its name,
entity, as new
the process
as an aspect of
the
and German
Russian,
Hungarian,
na
We
"historic"
that
see,
then,
respectively.
premodern
with
is
contrasted
whose
tions,
continuity
usually
uninterrupted
or "unhistoric"
in the history
of the "small"
the discontinuities
remaking
the
of
and
Polish
nations
also
nations,
underwent
period
formed
by their
losses,
in the modern
transformations
profound
On
the one
out of which
new
of nation-formation.11
hand,
nations
trans
they were
were
formed; on
those
the nation
into
other,
by integrating
they expanded
nation.
from the premodern
that had been excluded
social groups
a distinct
a social class with
In the formation
of a new nation,
the
character,
thought
ethnic-linguistic
transformed
becomes
and society,
classes.
national
to belong
to an existing
nation
into a full-fledged
society of all
the basis of a
marker
becomes
its ethnic
In this process,
culture.
national
and
language
often
nation-unmaking
of economic
problem
at first,
appears
reform or cultural
of
the process
Conversely,
as a
and is so diagnosed,
the
this was
integration:
was
national
for some a Jewish
when
what
for example,
case,
was
modern
revival
by
perceived
(that is,
Jewish
nation-making)
the Polish
as an "internal"
within
others
social/religious
problem
assertion
of the emerg
Herzl's
Theodor
process.
nation-remaking
ing Jewish identity could be voiced by other national writers

countless
other
cases:
"I do not
consider
the Jewish
question
in
to be
Ukraine:
or religious.
a social
. .it is a national
.question.
We
problem.
93
are
a nation."12
THE MAKING
OF UKRAINE
Little
Great
Russia,
Russia,
Russia
a concrete
of that dialec
example
provide
of
and
the
process
remaking
unmaking,
making,
concurrent
a
At
the
and
is
simultaneous
nations
phenomenon.
case will
The Ukrainian
in which
tical
elites be
educated
Empire's
in the modern
sense, they
sub
Some other
(or "Europe").
to become Russian,
the
declined
historical
the Russian
gan
did
as "Russians"
juncture when
to define
themselves
so in reaction
to "the West"
as eligible
jects of the tsar, viewed
to the nation-in-the-making;
offer of admission
themselves
that if they had to define
clared
they had not done
nation.
another
which
One
may
find
before?they
of their
evidence
"A Conversation
1762
poem
we may
which
consider
would
reasoning
of Great Russia
one of the earliest
they de
terms?
instead
in national
do
so as members
of
in Semen
Divovych's
Little Russia,"
statements
of the Ukrai
with
In that work,
"Little Russia"
patiently
explained
position.
both had the same ruler,
and Great Russia
Little Russia
that while
and was not subordinate
and character
she had her own history
to,
nian
or a part
of, Great
Russia.
On
the contrary,
she was
latter's
the
equal.13
see why
it makes
little sense to speak of "Ukraine"
in
the concept
the seventeenth
century;
part of "Russia"
becoming
as something
state
from
the
distinct
of a Russian
(or nation)
we
Here
and possessions
person
as
reminds
Greenfeld
emerged,
monarch's
first
did
not
then
exist.
in the
This
time
idea
of Peter
us, only
not clearly established
until the reign of Catherine
to being the autocrat
of Great
II. Yet when
the tsar, in addition
Russia?as
the
northeastern
of
Little
the
became
Russia,
sovereign
came to be called?Little
Russia
did not thereby
part of Ukraine
the Great
and was
sense. This Little

in the modern,
national
part of Russia
or historic Ukrainian
was
a kind of a premodern
which
Russia,
own
its
retained
Cossack
nation,
government,
laws, and institu
a
under the scepter of
tions for at least
after its acceptance
century
become
94
Roman Szporluk
the tsar. The
called for the elimi

project of Russia
nation-building
of Little Russia's
it was precisely
in
but
separate
identity:
the final decades
autonomous
of Little Russia's
existence
that its
nation
rights
to be defended
began
conception
The
Russian
Before
in a
language
a modern
revealing
of nation.
Project
the Ukrainians
tion-and-state-building
that had ramifications
sense) we may
in ways
(in a premodern,
prenational
subjects of the Empire.
Especially
for those who
call the Ukrainian
in Catherine
the na
their national
put forward
agenda,
of Russia was already under way,
IPs reign (1762-1796),
St. Petersburg held the view
was
the elimination
of Little Russia's
traditional
institutions
one
a
stateelement
of
and
and
just
larger
project
nation-building
a variety
was
to
thus required
of measures,
the aim of which
achieve
the complete
of Little Russia
into the Russian
integration
state and Russian
notes
Greenfeld
that,
society.
curiously,
that
that as much as 50 percent of this first mass of Russian

were
In itself, this fact would not be signifi
nationalists
Ukrainians.
was
to move
cant, but in Russia, which
steadily toward becoming
one of the model
ethnic nations,
the prominence
of ethnic non
Russians
In St.
does indeed add a touch of irony to the story....
it is possible
and Moscow,
Petersburg
literally
Russian
the humble
intelligentsia,
the
Great
While
Russian
Greenfeld's
that the nation

time
national
not
consciousness.14
are
facts
indisputable,
were helping
those Ukrainians
a Russian
in the front ranks of the nascent

youths from Little Russia forged
ethnic
nation:
the
one must
remember
to create was at that
imperial
project did not then define the all-Russian

reference
rise
to its Great
of Ukraine
Russian
ethnic
later
contributed
that
component.
to the
nation-building
identity simply by
It was
of Russian
"downsizing"
identity, which
ultimately
a
"Russian"
for "Great Russian."
synonym
making
to the Russian
It seemed quite reasonable
imperial
been
more
under
recent
the tsars
for more
acquisitions
of
resulted
the
and
in
government
after separating
(which,
of the seventeenth
had
century,
than a hundred
years), as well as the
to expect
that Little
society
in the middle
itself from Poland
and
rather
ethnicization
Russia
1793-1795,
would
join
in with
the
Ukraine:
95
in the making
Russia. Many
of a new, "European"
natives
of Little Russia
criteria)
(Ukrainians
by our contemporary
we may put under
in the diverse
in fact did participate
activities
Great
Russians
umbrella
of
the general
the eighteenth
century.
the same was
While
tant to note
in Russia,
"nation-building"
true
in
especially
in the nineteenth
it is impor
century,
has meant
quite different
that Russian
nation-building
In the eighteenth
times.
and into the
century
things at different
the concept
nation was
first half of the nineteenth,
of the Russian
was
not
mean
to
Russia
still relatively
understood
the
open:
yet
country
Russian
of the Great
history,
built
the construction
of a
Significantly,
the construction
of a national
included
Russians.
national
identity
around
the
idea of a state
by a thou
connected
distinguished
in unbroken
which
procession
sand-year-long
history,
Kiev with Vladimir,
and ultimately
the St. Pe
Suzdal', Moscow,
was
tsars.
construct
In
this
in
of
the
first
formulated
fact,
tersburg
with
connection
the
idea was
own
without
from
For
South
Muscovites
grating
Russians
mate,
informed
continuation
direct
later
who
function
further
really
in the
claiming
and
(and its empire)
as
Kiev's
heirs
macy
Kiev
ence
of Kiev.15
It was
the Muscovites
state. The
"Russians"
eighteenth
embellished
their
arguments,
an ethnic
to
the
deny
them
any
such a reading of history gravely

the
union
with
any at
from
a
state was
if indeed
the newcomers
that
their
idea that
they and the

a
inte
performed
significant
and afterwards.
The
century
"national"
history
by according
to the grand principality

of Moscow
and direct successor
of Kiev?first
religious
thereby
to
centuries
prior
had a very dim sense,
of the Kievan
were
and
Rus
the Ukrainians
several
credulity.
official Muscovy
Ukraine,
all, of being the direct heir
the
to disinherit
1654;
their
of
statehood.
Even if politically expedient,

tested
the
after
a state
possessed
time of Kievan
statehood
to independent
to Russia
had
this was
of
corollary
claim to historic
claim
attached
becoming
Russians
interruption
The
present.
from any
future
Ukraine's
that modern
the claim
of sole,
legiti
and
by invoking
dynastic
and then, in the age of ethnic nationalism,
by
between
the modern
nation
Russian
identity
the
state
of Kievan
Rus, denying
any legiti
in the post
that functioned
polities
to make
the Lithuanian
and Polish pres
As
ethnic
nationalism
inten
illegitimate.)
to other
space.
(This served
in those territories
96
Roman Szporluk
sified
throughout
carried one step
the
real Russians,
as
viewed
either
Russians
while
a
the Ukrainians
junior
was
this operation
Europe,
were
Russians
declared
nineteenth-century
farther:
the Great
of
branch
and
the Russian
to be
were
Belorussians
family
or
as
influences.
by foreign
of
nation-formation
the relation
of "Little
early phase
or of "Great Russians"
to "Russians
in general"
Russians"
had
some
not yet been resolved. Many
"Great
"Little Russians,"
and
was
most
Russians"
mattered
that what
that the
too, thought
corrupted
In the
Russian
narodnost
cultural
stock
experiences,
identity?the
the imperial
of the Russian
material
That
a member
of the Slavic family and that the

even historical
its
songs,
Russia,
legends,
into a common
could
be integrated
"pan-Russian"
content
not
If
of
which
had
been
defined.
yet
precise
the
"Official
idea
government
Nationality"
promoted
with
some
nation,
which
some
Russians
of
nation
of
history
anti-tsarist
libertarian,
(thus the well-known
in Ukrainian
the Decembrists
version
the
in Ukraine's
found
a more
to promote
Russian
all-Rus
an
of
conception
interest of
was
of Little
history).
nation was
the Russian
defined
imperial
with
the
West?had
do
confrontation
important
ideologically?in
status
Russian
and
for
the
of
Little
mestic
history
implications
a vision
state was
nation
of the Russian
society. The
promoting
on the understanding
as an autoc
of Russia
centered
above,
was
not
the
civil
the
educated
racy;
emerging
society,
public,
a competing
to advance
vision. Thus,
nation
the Russian
allowed
from
in which
in an international
with
comparisons
setting
forming
were
but the implicit adoption
of Western
the West
always made;
some ele
of
with
the explicit
hand-in-hand
ways went
rejection
was
ments
of
the West.
The Idea of Ukraine

If natives
of Little
Russia
were
so prominent
in the Russian
nation
building project, why did some of them refuse to join what had
to declare
themselves
Ukrainian?
instead
crafted,
choosing
a
of Russia,
the Russian
Europeanization
project
signified
a
a reactionary
to accept
was Ukrainianism
refusal
movement,
a
was
it the result of
conclusion
that the road to
Or
"Europe"?
been
Since
Europe
Ukraine?
being
built
in St. Petersburg
was
not
the
right
road
for
Ukraine:
This
essay argues for the latter interpretation.

and Poland were
themselves
peripheral
Russia
the early
West,
access
establish
Ukrainian
nation-builders
to
that both
Sensing
in relation
to the
believed
rather
97
"Europe"
directly,
is to say, without
Petersburg?that
acquiescing
a
of
periphery
periphery.
The emergence
of modern
Ukrainian
national
it better
to
of
St.
than
by way
in enduring
as the
consciousness
can
be dated with relative precision; its beginnings are found in the late
Certain
features
century.
eighteenth
as
be
characterized
the
earliest
may
literate?indeed,
well
to a certain
to be
the
standing
to those who
nationalists:
they
social groups;
upper-strata
they were
the world
the
educated;
they knew
beyond
land and people inwhich

sessed,
taken
common
Ukrainian
then were
to what
belonged
were
they had been born. They already pos

a secular
degree,
believers;
religious
state in terms other
outlook,
this outlook
than
even when
extended
the ones
they were
to under
propounded
by
those who still advocated the divine right of kings. They knew that
at least some
be governed.
Those
few
other
nations
individuals
decided
who
land and of a larger world

themselves.
No
redefining
could
for themselves
had
a broader
see that
how
view
societies
of
and
they would
their
own
states were
it the case that the monarch

longer was
was
defined his subjects;
it
the other way around. But
increasingly,
how
then was one to know who
were
the "people" were? What
the criteria for defining
to define
that collectivity
of people
entitled
the government
under which
they would
a government
would
be responsible?
live, and
to whom
such
The first definition of Ukraine was historical. The Little Russia

of the age of Catherine
a child
it was
(some
was
aware, and took pride in the fact, that

a
said
of the Polish-Lithuanian
stepchild)
its defenders
asserted
their rights
the
Commonwealth;
against
Little
Russia's
ties
with
the
Common
empire
by invoking
past
wealth.
Such was
the view of Hryhorii
who
"articulated
Poletyka,
a view of Ukraine
ruled as a gentry democracy
in the manner
of
the Polish Commonwealth."16
In the nineteenth
the
century
popu
list historian
of Ukraine,
Aleksander
criticized
the
Lazarevsky,
a leader of Ukraine's
Ivan Mazepa,
abortive
early eigh
for
for
the suppos
quest
teenth-century
independence,
perverting
social order:
"There is no doubt,"
edly open Ukrainian
Lazarevsky
efforts
of
98
Roman Szporluk
if there
"that
wrote,
Russian
not
had
been
then Mazepa
government,
of the
power
restraining
out of Little
have made
the
would
Russia a little Poland, with all its splendor for the pany and all its
for the muzhiki."17
hardships
However much he disapproved of the social system of old Po

land and the ideas of its imitators, Lazarevsky thus acknowledged
The construction
world.
ties to the non-Russian
political
a
the imperial
from
that "seceded"
national
Ukrainian
of
history
the declaration
of a link, a
version
of "Russian"
included
history
Ukraine's
of
direct
product
on the one
wealth,
after
Later,
both
internal
and Kievan
hand
nation
on
Rus
the other.
Russia
of Little
the Common
with
association
the Cossack
the historic
and
itself a
tradition, between Little Russia,
in political
continuity
was
for
dissolved
to eth
Ukrainians
external
reasons,
appealed
as to who
"us" and who was
for guidance
constituted
as the
defined Ukraine
The ethnic argument
territorially
the
Ukrainian
dialects were
land where
peasantry.
by
spoken
nography
"other."
Whether framed in ethnographic, linguistic, or historical terms,

declarations of a distinct Ukrainian cultural identity had political
to modify
the
Their effect was
from the first moment.
significance
was
to
a
of
in
the
that
the
definition
nation
official
way
contrary
the
held
that
of the empire.
official
aims and intentions
If
ideology
an autocracy,
folk
then collecting
and popularizing
to
served
that
extolled
"freedom"
system?
question
songs
was acquiring
its existence
The Ukraine
through
being constructed
"name
of
and conceptualizers;
the activities
classifiers,
givers,"
Russia
was
that
their words
created
individuals,
members
Ukrainian,
the roles
the material
of national
for
and
leaders
identity.
These
of
intelligentsia,
assumed
descent,
the Russian-speaking
or mixed Ukrainian-Russian
Russian,
of spokesmen
overwhelmingly
entities
of
of
a nation
that was
were
these
In many
intellectuals
ways
the
and Russian,
sociological
reflecting
of any
The mass
of Ukraine.
constituency
it ever to emerge,
consisted
were
primarily
peasant.
Ukrainian
simultaneously
and political
realities
Ukrainian
movement,
of serfs and thus remained beyond the pale of social and cultural
in the empire.
of Little
The defense
life
ture,
in theater,
and
Russia
in historical,
was
expressed
philological,
in works
and other
of
litera
researches.
At this initial stage in the late eighteenth century, language itself
Ukraine:
as the defining marker

regarded
the politico-historical
identity
especially
stood as the sine qua non of nationhood.
was
not
of the nation;
of the nation,
culture, and
was under
in the part of Ukraine

eastern
farthest
culturally?the
The
of the vernacular
adoption
was
most
the
that
"Westernized"
took place
in Poltava
and Kharkiv. Marc Raeff has written
region,
on this subject, noting
the crucial
role of educational
between
the
Raeff
contribution
of those
distinguishes
in Kharkiv.
The
older
intellectual
center
in the early
not
hand
which
of the nineteenth
decades
fostered
insightfully
institutions.
in Kiev
and
center, Kiev, had been of central

to imperial po
from Muscovite
as Ukraine's
functioned
cultural
the transition
importance
during
litical culture.
Kharkiv,
99
the Russification
of
on the other
century,
the elites but also the
only
to Raeff,
of idealism and Romanticism,
which,
reception
according
were
of
"the necessary
modern
nationalism."18
preconditions
was
not only different
in kind from the
The new nationalism
on
it was also
and
historical
preceding
emphasis
regional
identity;
of
subversive
tional
elite
cordingly
the first
national
the state
and
of Ukraine,
the
imperial
become
developed
academics
was
dead.
who
tradi
was
largely Russified,
in this new expression;
of this new
propagators
its scholarly and philosophical

old
The
having
involved
only marginally
and most
energetic
intellectuals,
identity were
"The
notes,
on historical
was
thought
establishment.
ac
instead,
sense of
systematically
justification. As Raeff
A new
based
nationalism,
folk
culture
(or what
anthropology,
philology
to be folk culture) was
under
the
influence
emerging
com
of Romanticism,
and the government's
idealistic philosophy,
to
an
refusal
active
civil
role."19
grant
plete
society
on the rise of the science
Benedict
Anderson's
of
argument
regionalism
and
philology
helps us to understand
the Ukrainian
idea was
formulated.
the circumstances
the study of
century, Anderson
he places
and
Advances
uniquely
languages,
notes:
in Semitics
ancient
or
which
undermined
of
divine
Of
the revolution
which
in language
in the later eighteenth
the idea that Hebrew

provenance....
under
"Language
was
either
became
an outside power
less of a continuity
between
and the human
an
than
internal
field
created
and
speaker
accomplished
by language
users
came
themselves."
Out
of these discoveries
among
on
From
this
the
old
sacred
point
philology....
languages?Latin,
100
Roman Szporluk
on equal
and Hebrew?were
forced to mingle
a
with
crowd
of
vernacular
footing
motley
plebeian
movement
which complemented
their earlier demotion
If
all
ket-place by print-capitalism.
languages now shared
Greek,
status, then all were in principle

(intra-) mundane
But by who?
admiration.
and
Logically,
study
new owners:
to
their
each
God,
belonged
by
equally worthy of
since now none
native
language's
readers.20
speakers?and
The
ontological
rivals, in a
in the mar
a common
construction
of modern
Ukraine
or monar
theological
longer
the dominance
of the clergy in the
into account
takes
(western) parts of Ukraine
Greek-Catholic
a different
required
no
framework?one
philosophical
If one
chical.
also
into
(which lasted well
on the one hand and the formation

of a
century)
as early as the sixteenth
on
literature
the
century
to
it
understand
both
the
becomes
pro
other,
protracted
possible
cess of a specifically
in Galicia
Ukrainian
nation-formation
and
the nineteenth
Polish
vernacular
other
areas
Polish
national
but
of Austria
especially
project
and
enormous
the
attractiveness
to "Ruthenians"?not
pronounced
confronted
evident
Austrian
under
rule.
a modern
secular
Weltanschauung
in this society;
of power
the question
related was
masters
for divine mediation,
of a sacred language
share power
and 1840s,
the young
sion
into
aristocracy.
with
or abdicate
power
to secular
of
before
A
the
1772,
theological
outlook.
Closely
the clergy, as the
to
did not want
In the 1830s
elites.
the vernacular
against
by
fought
proposed
to
in
1848
admis
clerics
managed
deny
intelligentsia;
to members
of the landed
the Ukrainian
community
to fight
lan
The Greek-Catholic
continued
clergy
the clergy
guage-power
not
century,
struggles
into
the
giving up for good

it was
the process
final
until
decades
the
of
the
nineteenth
twentieth.
to the delineation
of the
leading
to
be completed;
Ukraine
that took the longest
1917.
In
in a sense, this was
the
nineteenth
after
only
completed
use
and
but
it
of
both
involved
the
century
history
ethnography
Ultimately,
territory of modern
also, crucially,
the previously
a material,
had
Tatar
the colonization
of
aspect:
practical
and Turkish
South
peasants
by Ukrainian
from the Russian East Ukraine

Polish,
right-bank
eighteenth
Ukraine,
(or Little Russia) and the former
conquered
by
the empire
in the
century.
late
Ukraine:
shall never
We
the Stage
Rearranges
Geopolitics
how
know
101
the Ukrainian-Russian
relationship
might
in its pre-1770
remained
the Russian
Empire
scene transformed
events on the international
borders. Two major
Russian
in which
and Ukrai
of
the subsequent
the setting
history
have
had
evolved
nian
nation-making
the borders
moved
it possible
of Poland
the partitions
far to the west?making
Empire
a western
of the Russian
periphery
took
place.
of the Russian
for Little
First,
Russia,
to come
contact
into direct
with
the partitions,
on
western
eastern periphery
the
Poland's
(or "Ukraine")
in the formation
In the long run, this resulted
bank of the Dnieper.
a new
we know
Ukraine
of a new
today?around
entity?the
before
Empire
former
the city of Kiev, which

center,
town.
been a border
Second,
made
Black
Sea
of
the
region
before
Russian
the partitions
of Poland
had
in the
conquests
imperial
a Ukrainian
colonization
possible
and from Poland's
former
of Russia,
to
in 1793-1795),
what
Ukrainian
(annexed
by Russia
peripheries
lands of the
is now southern Ukraine,
which
had been peripheral
the Ukrainian
from
Ottoman
With
peripheries
Empire.
the Russian
annexation
of what
had
been
between Warsaw
of Ukraine
partition
For Ukrainians,
the Polish partitions
border
Poland's
an "undoing of 1667"
territories in 1793-1795,
(that is, of the
and Moscow)
took
place.
stage in the
rearranged
from an administrative
midst
of their transition
regional or provin
to an "inter-nationality"
and fi
within
cial problem
the empire
an
east
west
Most
the
and
international
problem.
obviously,
nally
were now united within
one state. Not
banks of the Dnieper
only
the
were
in post-1795
there many more Ukrainians
to play
first time, the Polish question
began
Russo-Ukrainian
relationship.
But
the Russian
Poland
had
between
and
for
sians
public
transformed
Great
Russia
the empire,
the politics
in the
would
and
did not understand

the conditions
and
Little
under
was
And
century.
yet
and Uniates,
millions
of Roman
Catholics
more
of Russian
Jews, put on the agenda
but
for the
role
in the
that
the partitions
of
which
the relations
the
between
Russia,
The critical
importance
develop.
culture
of Russia
nineteenth
Russia,
a crucial
"Ukraine"
of Poland
perceived
by
the inclusion
few Rus
of
million
and
politics
several
of
a number
new
of
102
Roman Szporluk
Were
these new subjects
citizens
pressing
questions.
full-fledged
even
were
not
Russia? Were
if
they
they rossiyane
russkiye}21
The
Russian-Polish
Andreas
for
Struggle
in his
Kappeler,
the
argues
of
importance
the Russian
Empire
rightly
undermining
of Poles
themselves
crisis
of
century."22
the Russian
1795,
After
in a de
tions
and
in the
Polish
nobility
Russo-Polish
the
in two ways:
influence
Poles
Soviet
Empire,
movement
in
national
the efforts
through
on the Lithuanians,
this
played
at
Empire
role
leading
end of the
the
ruled its former Polish acquisi

Empire
a de jure, alliance with
after 1815
the
and
facto,
of west-bank
relationship
in the manner
lasting,
as a Multinational
the Polish
by Polish
and Ukrainians.
"The
Belorussians,
once
again
twentieth
the "Borderlands"
Russia
study
of
and Lithuania.
This
Belarus,
Ukraine,
did not become
formal
and
something
of
the Austro-Hungarian
"compromise"
after 1866. But it did define the parameters inwhich
the Ukraini
ans
and
for more
lived
a generation:
than
Polish
social
cultural
and Russian
state, and military

power.
political,
in
situation
The
Polish
changed
dramatically.
surrection
this
of 1830-1831
Polish-Russian
cohabita
destroyed
tion (which was being subverted
of
anyway
by imperial violations
Each for their own reasons,
the Russians
and the
the 1815 accord).
to a common
formed
similar
front against
Ukrainians
something
were
to prove
resolved
these lands were
the Poles. The Russians
dominance,
After
1830,
the
and in this effort they were

assisted
Polish,
by the Ukrainians.
some
Russians
time
the
realized
the Ukrainians
took
before
(It
were
were
not Russian,
the lands in question
also trying to prove
not
was
Ukraine
of a modern
the making
either.) Thus,
taking place
as most
not in "Austria"
textbooks
and "Russia,"
say, but in a
an overwhelming
social space?where
social world?the
majority
lived under Polish nobles. The moderniz
Ukrainians
of would-be
es
of
the
new
intellectual
tion
from
concept
revolution
above?of
those
promised
at the same
free and Polish
become
This
nation
Polish
of
the
and
the
serfs
that
they would
time.
nation
Polish
political
final decade
first
reforms?a
of
the
in the
emerged
revolu
peaceful
eighteenth
century.
The Polish nation survived the destruction of the Polish state by

Berlin,
Vienna,
and
St. Petersburg.
Poland
further
survived
as a
Ukraine:
the social
society;
landscape
103
was
of the late Rzeczpospolita
domi
nated by the Poles. But the old noble-dominated society was gradually
dissolved by industrialization and urbanization and by new ideas
of
In a real
and political
organization.
of the Commonwealth?modern
social
nations"
sense
the "successor
Poles, Jews, Lithuanians,

out of the transformation
and Ukrainians?emerged
Belorussians,
of its old classes,
and religious
estates,
modernization.
under
groups
Ukraine under Russia and Poland: The Nineteenth

In the early
of the nineteenth
decades
the impact
Century
the Russian
century,
of
public
did not know Ukraine in any other form except that of Little
Russia. As Paul Bushkovit?h has noted, the Russians thought of
the right bank of the Dnieper as Polish; they knew that the nobility
there was
Polish. And when

the Russians
thought about the south?
was Odessa,
the Steppe region?it
the sea, and economic
develop
ment
that came to mind,
not the Ukrainians:
and reader the Ukraine was Malorossija,
the
and the Slobodskaja
(later Char'kovskaja)
on the left bank was
This exclusive concentration
in
gubernija....
itself the product
of several forces. The assumption
that the left
so powerful
bank was
the entire Ukraine was
that none of the
authors of the time explained
this identification,
but the basic rea
son was undoubtedly
of a gentry
in that
the existence
society
To
old
the Russian
Hetmanate
area....
As
writer
most
Russian
writers
of
that
age
came
from
the
gentry,
when
they turned to the Ukraine,
they saw only their counterparts
in the so-called Little Russian
these gentry had
gentry. Further,
and
with
Russian
ties
many personal
gentry, and many had
family
been and still were prominent
in all-Russian
politics.23
At first glance it might seem that the life of the Ukrainian

national poet Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861)
supports Hroch's
thesis
drawn
that
from
national
awakeners
the lower
social
in the
strata.
so-called
Born
small
are
nations
a serf, Shevchenko
tech
nically remained a serf until his freedom was purchased by his

friends
when
he was
a man
in his
twenties,
a graduate
of
the St.
Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts. But as Omeljan Pritsak has

recently reminded us, Shevchenko did not become a builder of
modern
Ukrainian
consciousness
because
he was
born
in the vil
lage, because he lived his childhood surrounded by folk culture, or
104
Roman Szporluk
because
he spoke
was
the Ukrainian
as his
vernacular
first
a modern
he had
It
language.
and cultural
only after
political
acquired
after he had
left his native
and became
awareness?long
village
aware
a
in
of
first
Vilnius
and then in St. Peters
larger world,
to
see
Shevchenko
the
of
burg?that
political
began
significance
a
his native
and "nationalized"
it by making
culture
its language
medium
of
counter
with
Poltava"
artistic
Pritsak
expression.
Yevhen
Hrebinka
other
(among
things),
that
argues
it was
the en
"a landowner
(1812-1848),
that opened
Shevchenko's
from
and
song
that modern
literature
original
of
those
folk
language
in the
produced
The great Russian
was
to
eyes
the fact that literary circles had great interest in Ukrainian

in fact being
folk
already
songs.24
critic Vissarion
under
(1811-1848)
Belinsky
were
the Ukrainian
literati
stood
instantly what
really up to and
a Ukrainian-language
knew
that creating
literature might?indeed
a nation,
to
to the idea that a Ukrainian
would?lead
society,
match
that
Grabowicz
should
literature,
has noted,
"Belinsky's
be
next.
created
consistently
As
negative
George
reaction
G.
to
Shevchenko was occasioned precisely by his principled opposition

to
and
'separatism'
For
implied."25
literary
sarily
understand
their
that Shevchenko
in the formation
were
of Ukraine
that it neces
separatism
the Russians
did not
part, however,
a qualitatively
new stage
represented
and the decline
of Little Russia.
The
the political
in the bipolar
Russian-Polish
world,
to regard them as their own province.
some Poles were
the
accepting
gradually
(Interestingly
enough,
in formerly
nation
and of other nations
of a Ukrainian
emergence
Ukrainians
but
the Russians
operating
continued
Polish lands.)
to this national
state responded
the Russian
Indeed,
and the coming
of
of the empire
gious diversification
own
in Europe
its
definition
nationalism
by formulating
the doctrine of Official Nationality,

doxy,
Russia
dom
and
reli
the era of
of Russia:
according to which Ortho
on which
were
the principles
and narodnosf
autocracy,
the property
of the monarch;
serf
stood. The nation was
was
Peter
the Great was
institution.
held to be a national
extolled
to almost
creator
of Russia.
was
incidentally
even suggested
divine
that
and was
tsarist official,
in Germany
with
"Russia
be
should
One
born
levels
described
routinely
E. Kankrin
Count
the
called
as the
(who
of Krebs),
and we
Petrovia,
surname
Ukraine:
or
Petrovians:
Romanovites."
course
of
significant
the time that
precisely
the Ukrainian
defining
Before
long,
105
and we
Romanovia,
com
read
this
journalist
proposal
an
correct
but
one!"26
It is
idea,
essentially
were
that Kankrin's
ideas
aired at
being
the empire
A Russian
"An unusual
mented:
should
be named
who
an emerging
was
Ukrainian
intelligentsia
as
a
to
nation
devoted
people
liberty.
the Russians
began
to understand
the connection
between the Polish and the Ukrainian questions. They did so in a

manner
a number
of a police mentality.
of
Drawing
Polish uprising, which was
finally sup
in St. Petersburg
the government
pressed
by the summer of 1864,
the terms of the emancipation
in regions
modified
of 1861
that
a
had been the scene of the Polish uprising;
it
announced
further,
characteristic
conclusions
number
that
from
the 1863
of anti-Catholic
the Ukrainian
movement
the Russian
dismember
In 1863
measures.
the so-called
was
St. Petersburg
also concluded
a product
of the Polish plot to
nation.
ukaz, named
Valuyev
the first restrictions
after
the minister
of
on the use of the

introduced
interior,
Ukrainian
The
which
the support
government,
language.
enjoyed
of the public
in this respect,
of a large segment
concluded
that the
was
Ukrainian
the Ukraini
phenomenon
dangerous?even
though
ans limited
to literary and scholarly
their activities
in
pursuits,
the
contrast
marked
some
Russians
Russian
nation,
to the Poles. What

came
which
were
the Ukrainians
doing,
to realize,
subverted
the very unity of the
in the view of educated
Russians
consisted
or folkloristic
of three major
Great
subdivisions?the
ethnographic
or
the
Little
and
the
White
Russians,
Russians,
Belo-Russians?yet
was one nation,
in its common
united
culture
and in poli
higher
tics.
did not believe

that the Ukrainian
government
an expression
of any authentic
and
legitimate
of the population
of Little Russia
and chose to treat it
Russian
The
was
movement
aspirations
as a product
of foreign
This set the
(in this case, Polish)
"intrigue."
tone for how Russia
view Ukrainian
would
nationalism
for de
in the future, "Ukrainianism"
cades to come:
as
would
be viewed
a product
or
of German,
Vatican
besides
Austrian,
plots,
being
seen as, in one way
or another,
an
Polish
invention.
originally
In 1876 the imperial government
even farther
went
in its iden
tification
of Ukrainian
language
and culture
with
political
separat
106
Roman Szporluk
in a secret
ism when,
edict
of Ukrainian
publication
nian plays
and
songs.
writings
According
government
out of
literature
political
import
or protonationalist:
must
qualities
or
Shevchenko,
the
by the tsar at Ems, it forbade
and the performance
of Ukrai
to Grabowicz,
in taking this step
to raise Ukrai
albeit
helped,
ironically,
its provincial
it newfound
mode,
giving
the Russian
nian
signed
it as something
subversive,
by casting
separatist,
"It goes without
that these
saying, of course,
or
as in
have
less openly,
existed?more
already
in potential17
The model of the Russian nation and society promoted by the

state encountered
from two directions.

One might
challenges
in approximately
that there emerged,
the same
say figuratively
or
two
historical
alternative
for
ways,
models,
period,
seceding
to the rejection
from the empire. One path of secession
amounted
a challenge
on
to, the fundamental
of, and eventually
principle
This became
which
the empire was built?autocracy.
the basis of
a deep
as
in
in
Russian
revealed
the title of
cleavage
identity,
tsarist
V. Riasanovsky's
book A Parting
amines
the relations
between
the government
cated elite in the first half of the nineteenth
Alexander
mode
of
Ukraine
and
While
was
"secession"
represented
the Turkish/Tatar
similar
thing
happened
the Russian
to,
sponses
and Tatar holdings
in the Black
centuries
been
in the Ukrainian
Thus,
than a matter
idea.
in a way
the Ukrainians
after
the
some
the
event,
long
the Ukrainian
of, and re
perception
annexation
of formerly
Turkish
imperial
the eighteenth
century
in the south and southeast.
in past
other
to
From
out
century.28
the Ukrainian
edu
The
Connection
the partition
of Poland
affected
to
notice
failed
until
public
Russian
by
ex
which
of Ways,
and Russia's
region.
colonization
onward,
The newly colonized
inhabited
case,
Sea
by Ukrainians
the nationalization
was
carried
lands had not

or
other
Slavs.
of space was more

to an already
inhabited
labels
of attaching
national
or nationalist
some other nation
movement
upon which
the
of Eu
another
among
Uniquely
designation.
peoples
territory
had put
rope in the nineteenth
were
in fact creating
the Ukrainians
century,
a
in
what
would
the age of nationalism
become
part of their
major
new
their national
homeland.
These were
future national
space,
"New Rus
the Russians
called
lands of Russia?indeed,
them
Ukraine:
sia"?but
course
107
they were being

would
be claimed
south?and
and in due
settled mainly
by Ukrainians
of settling
the
for Ukraine.
The process
not
understood
the Ukrainian
space?was
expanding
in the national
as an aspect
of Ukrainian
nation-building
nor the public
state
the
Russian
(Neither
taking place.
to this fact.) The opera Zaporozhets'
attached any special importance
za Dunayem
Cossack
the Danube")
("The Zaporozhian
beyond
was not written
and produced
and
until much
later, in the 1860s;
thought
itwas
when
it was
in the late 1870s

that Mykhailo
only
was
Russia
the reasons why New
definition
of Ukraine.
Drahomanov
set out
In Russian
coast
included
clearly
within
his
the conquest
of the Black Sea
consciousness,
in terms of imperial wars,
is perceived
impe
of Odessa
and Sevastopol.
and the building
national
and of Crimea
rial military
grandeur,
seen from the perspective
By contrast,
centuries
several
the
story begins
epic,
of
the Ukrainian
national
it is a
earlier;
a
wars
of
and
settlement.
story
history,
people's
people's
people's
can help shed light on the psycho
in this way
the matter
Seeing
about
of the current Russo-Ukrainian
dispute
logical background
it is a matter
of military
the Black
Sea fleet. For the Russians,
it
from the Ukrainian
and national
perspective,
prestige
grandeur;
is yet another
of
expression
so typified
in Repin's
freedom
to the Sultan
Letter
Vienna
Only now may we

modern
Ukraine,
definition
further
that
The
much
Russia
of Vienna
long-term
enters accounts
that typically
of
seen that the
We
have
as a process
took place
of self
earlier.
Yet
and Poland.
or "ethnicization"
that had
there
took
place
of the nation,
beyond
undertaken
by
first been
a nation, Vienna
opened
tionalization"
of the Ukrainian
to Austrian
rule
although
historians.
become
also
was
of
history
in a way normally
into Ukrainian
directly
significance,
presented by Ukrainian
Polish
Writing
elite.
entry
enormous
turn to a theme
of nation-formation
a historical
"Zaporozhians
upon
Question
both
against
"culturalization"
effort
insistence
plebeian
painting
though
Ukraine
of modern
formation
brave
of Turkey."
the Slavic
and
that
moreover,
not
If esse percipi
a new
to
in the "interna
dimension
phenomenon.
made
possible
is needed
The
the
transfer
transition
from
to a
108
Roman Szporluk
different level of life: serfs became legal subjects with standing in

public law, human beings de jure.
What
Hawthorn
Geoffrey
of the European
can equally
be said
absolutism
century
has observed
about
in Africa
powers
about Vienna's
the impact of the

in the nineteenth
impact
on
"Galicia":
states were,
states. They controlled
in their absolutism,
Absolutist
their territories and their population
within
them. And if they did
not emerge from an already existing political
community,
they al
most always served to create one. Those who came later to contest
them. . .could take that community
for granted, or at least could
it that there was
take
a community
to be fought
for.29
made
the rise of a political
pos
community
not
out
did
make
Ukrainians
of
and
Greek
sible,
peasants
they
Their
Catholics.
first "higher"
and
"Ruthenian,"
identity was
was
consciousness
their first political
call it, in
may
imperial?we
Austrian
reforms
but
Tom?s
Masaryk's
of what
advantage
The party capable

term, "Viennism."
was
the Austrians
had set in motion
of taking
the Poles;
from the creation

of a single Galicia,
i.e.,
they knew how to benefit
a new entity
a Ruthenian
eastern
that consisted
of mainly
part,
of "Ruthenia"
the province
before
and an over
1772,
forming
western
Polish
would
have
been quite
part. Things
whelmingly
as
a
had "Ruthenia"
been retained
distinct
different
entity under
Vienna.
After
the Poles
it became
clear
had
that
transformed
the Vienna
their own
reforms
1790s,
for the subsequent
the ground
triumphal march
was
more
in "Ruthenia"
Polonization
fact, there
there
had
been
in the four
centuries
a new
social
slowly,
defined
barriers
and
cient, sharply
undermined
by "culture"?growing
However
in the
identity
had merely
cleared
In
of "Polonism."
1370
after
1795
and
1772.
emerging.
reality was
structures were being
literacy, dissemination
The
between
than
an
gradually
of knowl
scientific
and secular
The
thought.
larger world,
was
as
trans
indicated
above,
Polish,
meaning
becoming
to
Polish
formed.
identity was open to these "Ruthenes,"
stratum?
to all who were
"Greek Catholics,"
leaving the peasant
or to those sons of the clergy who
to pursue
did not wish
their
edge
about
the
of being
The new
father's
teachers
lacked
or
to be doctors,
engineers,
hoped
the Ruthenes
century,
early nineteenth
own
not
use
their
did
ideology;
they
living Ian
in society
In the
instead.
station
a secular
and
Ukraine:
in print,
guage
or civic
education,
affairs.
All
these
spheres
109
were
serviced by Polish language and Polish ideas; those individuals

who
a certain
reached
had
else
nowhere
intellectual
level and
social
station
had
to go but to Polonism.
remained Greek Catholic
The masses
so long as
and "imperial"
the way of life of the overwhelming
In
majority.
the 1830s?after
the Polish
Insurrection
of 1830-1831,
and three
after
1772?some
"Ruthenians"
seri
turned
young
generations
to
was
on
in
what
and
Kiev.
Kharkiv,
ously
going
Poltava,
They
in it
culture
from the East and discovered
up to Ukrainian
opened
a force capable
of immunizing
them to Polonism
and at the same
serfdom
defined
time bringing
as
them to a world
"Ukraine"
stage. Thus
entered,
a third party,
contest
the great historic
between
Russia
and Po
land. An observer
from the side, the Czech
and activist
journalist
Karel Havlicek
between
(1821-1856),
the Russians
and
in the picture,"
he went
on,
of a distinct
Ukrainian
emergence
The
penetrating
spheres. The
the consciousness
As
the
nationality.
and as institutional
with
nation,
Ukrainian
lacking
political
differentiation
the Russians;
phenomenon,
advanced
by the
with
the birth of
status.
and Poland
the unity of those

those Ukrainians
the Galician
did
respectively
Ukrainians
who
who
refused
re
to be
needed to defend their identity

Ukrainians?even
had lived under Russia
been
against
sian" Ukrainians
further
associated
from Russia
bank region, who
1795?had
selves
was
or Two?
Polish. The Russian Ukrainians

against
was
thus
nationality
Russian-Polish
beyond
of the Ukrainian
of Poland,
in Europe
guarantee
necessarily
to be Russian
with
west
"it is the Ukrainian."30
took hold,
family of nations
this
reflecting
emerged?beginning
in Prague and in
of chairs of Slavic studies
in their own right as a distinct
"arrived"
Nation
Ukraine?One
"If
structures
Ukrainians
despite
(and struggle)
two wolves."
of
idea of a Slavonic
the establishment
Vienna?the
of the world
"internationalization"
the partitions
begun with
new
intellectual
climate
fused
"a fable
is a lamb
there
not
dubbed the polemic
the Poles
those
in the
from 1793
with maintaining
them
to pass before
the "Rus
of "Polish"
and "Austrian"
Ukrai
traditionally
preoccupied
the Poles.
Some time had
began
to think
to
110
Roman Szporluk
as a part of one nation,
and before the latter
as their conationals.
Ukrainians
nians
took
note
of the
"Russian"
Itwas
the Galicians
who
first turned
their eyes toward "Ukraine."

to discern phases
in its history.
we
in dealing with Galicia

need
was
there
the
but
critical
from
the
First,
partial
emancipation
on
social
total
the
and
cultural
This
szlachta.
virtually
dependence
was accomplished
intervention
after about
1772. The
by Viennese
as
soon
was
became
"Ruthenianism,"
evident,
resulting
largely
in resisting
in
Mass
Polonization.
Polonization
occurred
helpless
But
came to mean
not only the old
Polonism
phase, when
noble
but also a revolutionary
of emancipation
power
program
a turn toward
in
and cultural
the
freedom.
third
did
Only
phase
the second
the people
and its language
come,
a
and
to, Ukrainian
receptiveness
accelerated
of,
by the discovery
life in the Russian
This
Empire.
third period began only in the 1830s.

But
were
was
this march
neither
simple
of moskvofiVstvo?an
periods
nor straightforward.
There
orientation
toward Russia?
before Galicia finally decided itwanted to be a part of Ukraine.

Why then did the Galicians, having decided they would not be
not want
Polish
likewise
the Russian
and having
rejected
option,
to be a Galician
to be a
nation? What
made
them choose
instead
small
Two
part of Ukraine?
answers
tentative
resources
tural
that
come
to mind.
First,
enabled
the culturally
of Galicia
Ruthenes
Ukraine
impoverished
to compete with
had
cul
and
so
Polish
underprivileged
and politics.
the Galicians
Second, by joining Ukraine
not by
members
of a nation
larger than Poland;
"Greater Ukraine."
With
did they call it Velyka Ukraina,
accident
was roughly
out an affiliation with Ukraine,
the Galician
community
cially
culture, society,
were
becoming
the
size of
the
sense
versus
or Lithuanian
the Slovak
that Ukraine
Poland
that made
offered
nationalities.
them
it possible
the
best
for Catholic
it was
Perhaps
of
survival
hope
Galicians
to unite
the Orthodox
Catholic
Poles.
East?against
of the fact that the period
This may be a place to remind oneself
into the nineteenth
after 1795?indeed,
well
de
century?was,
with
in all
rule, one of Polish cultural
political
hegemony
even saw an expansion
This period
the old republic.
into Kiev and as far to the east as Kharkiv.
of "Polonism"
(There
spite Russian
the lands of
were
Poles
involved
in the founding
of Kharkiv
University;
more
Ukraine:
over,
Kharkiv
passing
fications
the Moscow-St.
able
the necessity
felt
strongly
was
Petersburg
for Ukrainian
that
so
Polonism
as a link
functioned
that when
development.)
of defining
in Galicia.
Vienna
a deal with
and made
to the West
the Poles
via Warsaw,
channel,
Itwas
with
oneself
as distinct
So
ceased
111
by
rami
important
therefore
understand
from
Poles
was
Ukrainian
anti
strong
to be the Ruthenes'
protector
some Ruthenes
(after 1867),
even
their salvation
from the Poles
sought
Little
then, that the question
surprise,
as a key
was
seen by Ukrainian
patriots
in tsarist
of
Russia.
intra-Ukrainian
issue
As
for decades.
unity
late
as 1906, Mykhailo Hrushevsky published an article titled "Ukraine

in which
and Galicia,"
the historian
warned
his
compatriots
that
if they did not take care, they might well end up as the Serbs and
Croats
nations
had?two
that
argued
that one nation
Hrushevsky
guarantee
an ethnic
based
on
one
ethnic
a common
would
foundation.
not
could
ethnicity
by itself
rise on it; the transformation
of
to
work
and
the
wish
be
required
into a nation
group
was
a foundation.
The
Ethnicity
only a point of departure,
common
a
a
of
Ukrainian
development
literary language
required
a
to
deliberate
sustained
and
effort,
policy,
Hrushevsky
appealed
one.
on both
Ukrainians
can
We
speak
Poland
thought
interest?above
and
of
eastern
to step up their efforts.31

the completion
of the Ukrainian
the border
of
confidently
process
nation-building
who
emerged
national
sides
individuals
only when
in terms of a common
western
Ukraine's
and
organizations
"pan-Ukrainian"
with
preoccupation
Ukraine's
with Russia.
preoccupation
to create a
and
worked
consciously
energetically
common
on
west
eastern
Austrian
the
modeled
itself
language;
authors.
Even so, the relation
between
is
and
language
nationality
misunderstood.
The Ukrainians
of Russia
and Austria
commonly
one nation
same
did not become
the
because
they spoke
language;
The Ukrainians
to speak
the
they came
to be one nation.
decided
They
clusion
greatest
by Hrushevsky's
of Ukrainian
same
because
language
they
were
in reaching
helped
history. Hrushevsky
accomplishment?his
both established
had
first
this con
synthesis
the standard
a concep
and pointed
the way
toward achieving
it; he constructed
a
a
tion of Ukrainian
common
that
offered
toward
history
path
Ukrainian
toward
the future of the
strategy,
political
envisioning
a historical
not merely
whole
its parts. By constructing
nation,
112
Roman Szporluk
for
argument
stressed
cially
at
L'viv
Armstrong
"Ukrainian
the unity of the Ukrainian

his work
nation,
espe
the crucial
of
links
Kiev
between
and
importance
as John A.
critical
of history.
junctures
Hrushevsky,
has argued
the
vindication
of the
recently,
provided
did
myth"?and
science.32
century
so
in the
language
of
nineteenth
as emphatically
ar
(and just as importantly),
Hrushevsky
a
the
of
state"
idea
Russian
and
"thousand-year-old
gued against
nation
denied
that any single "Russian"
had existed
for a millen
Just
nium.
a contemporary
To
accords of 1991,
and nations
republics
and Belarus
pretation
1904 on
the
"rational
Hrushevsky's
the same time
the historical
appear
Union,
of the Hrushevsky
structure"
schema;
of Ukraine,
from Hrushevsky's
it in a famous
of East
Russia,
inter
of
paper
Slav history.33
at roughly
explained
for the present
that emerged
from
Ivan Franko
the practical
constructions
tasks
of his
of Galicia,"
or nationalism
Young
what
nationality
states
easily be deduced
as he summarized
contemporary
Ukrainians
to be the
the Soviet
dissolved
can quite
of the past,
Belovezha
the leaders of the three East Slavic
terms
in real, political
of the independent
implementation
the establishment
the so-called
observer,
political
in which
In "An Open
Franko
friend.
written
was
the Ukrainian
intelligentsia an enormous practical
is
zadacha]
opening up now, under freer forms of life
create out of the vast ethnic mass of Ukrainian
people
cultural organism,
nation, a comprehensive
capable of
Before
life, resistant
to
Letter
in 1905,
about:
distilled
task [diyova
in Russia: to
a Ukrainian
an indepen
to assimilationist
efforts
of
dent cultural
and political
other
nations,
whatever
open
rate,
to receiving, on the widest

scale, and at the fastest
possible
which
without
those universal human cultural achievements
no
nation
and
no
state,
their
and,
origin,
however
at
the
can
powerful,
same
time,
a nation
survive.34
CONCLUSIONS
In evaluating
the prospects
of Ukraine
to turn to the ideas of the Russian
Georgii
Fedotov,
who
as a nation
itmay
be useful
and
theologian
philosopher
while
and 1930s,
early as the 1920s
on the future of Ukrainian-Russian
rela
as
living in exile, reflected

tions after the fall of communism.
Fedotov
thought
the
central
Ukraine:
in the Russo-Ukrainian
involved
question
existence
a third
of
party?Poland,
links. Objectively,
historical
Poland
and Russia,
between
centuries-long
a choice
make
on us that
"with
is not made
this choice
against
113
was
the
relationship
it is tied with
which
Ukraine
and
our old
will
to
have
it depends
common
in part
father
land."35
to Fedotov
important
was what
Equally
of Russia
he perceived
for the preservation

of the unity
to be the role of Russian
culture
"access to world
peoples
so in the St. Petersburg
so [in the post-Soviet
remain
in giving all of the Empire's

it: "This was
As he put
it should
and
Empire,
of Russia
peoples
in
Paris
but
and
We
then
of
the
If the
future].
not in St. Petersburg,
inMoscow,
us."36
they will not remain with
Fedotov
would
have
said
about
the
includes also regions

that in his time
today when Ukraine
to Poland, Czechoslovakia,
and Romania
and were
largely
a
rather than Orthodox.
Ukraine
does not have to make
situation
belonged
Catholic
"choice"
between
saw has
thus
Russia
Poland
has given up any
Poland;
Ukraine's
War
recognizes
independence.
transformed
from
itself, in the Ukrainian
perspective,
to Ukraine
claims
not
study
in Berlin,
know what
not
do
will
civilization."
period
and
and
a historic
into an important
it is not only in Paris,
enemy
ally. And
in
New
and
but
also
London,
Frankfurt,
York,
Boston,
Toronto,
are "study
and Tokyo
that non-Russians
and Russians
themselves
of the Soviet Union.
ing" after the collapse
But Fedotov's
serious attention
general point merits
today. Just
as the unity of Russia
as he saw it depended
on Russia's
capacity
to the world
so the survival
to be a window
for its peoples,
of
as an independent
state (one may
to
Ukraine
reason) will depend
a large extent
on how
to its
it succeeds
in bringing
the world
people?and
ing the major
to the world.
its people
"internal"
problems
Success
of Ukraine
or failure
today
in manag
will
be
af
fected by the relations it establishes between itself and the world

as a nation,
as argued
in this
idea of Ukraine
to the centers
its people
should have direct access
to an inferior
of civilization
rather than being condemned
status,
at large on
that they should
be communicating
with
the world
The
community.
essay, was
that
their own
rather
During
delivered
than
a speech
intermediaries.
through
his visit to Kiev
in May
at Shevchenko
of 1995, President Clinton
University
clearly
intended
to
114
Roman Szporluk
assure
Ukrainians
ordinary
their
plauded.
that
States
the United
his audience
message
at the university
roared
independence?a
The crowd
embraced
fully
ap
con
enthusiastically
when
Clinton
cluded his speech with theUkrainian phrase Slava Ukraini-? "Glory

to Ukraine."
"He
spoke
came
Ukrainian!"
sixty-five-year-old
wall
and craned
retired
her
Aeroflot
over
head
American
the shout
a
Shulga,
on a stone
from Oksana
worker
who
stood
to
in order
throng
a clutch of American
the
see
the
Later,
reporters
president.
spying
on the sidewalk
to observe
the proceedings,
she took
gathered
to
want
not part
"We
them under
be part of the world,
tutelage:
she added
of Russia,"
she explained.
of the
Then,
approvingly,
he
"And
understands
that.5'37
president:
ENDNOTES
B. Rumer,
Eugene
Letter:
"Eurasia
Will
to Russia?"
Return
Ukraine
Foreign
Policy (96) (Fall 1994): 129-144. For comprehensive recent surveys of Ukrai
nian history see Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History
(Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1988) and Paul Robert Magoesi, A History of Ukraine (Seattle,
Wash.:
von
For
of Washington
Press,
University
1996).
a
"Does
Ukraine
Have
History?"
current
and
Hagen,
George
see Mark
debates,
G. Grabowicz,
"Ukrainian Studies: Framing the Contexts," Slavic Review 54 (3) (1995): 658
673, and 674-690, and the comments by Andreas Kappeier, Iaroslav Isaievych,
SerhiiM. Plokhy, and Yuri Slezkine. Ibid., 691-719.
2Contrary
to common
a religion with
cultural
entity
in the early modern
belief,
that was
in which
those
to the West.
superior
selves in relation to theWest,

the Russians
period
the Poles?despite
sharing
themselves as forming a distinct political and
theWest?viewed
They
thus
sought
to define
them
although they did so in terms very different from

saw
themselves
as
in opposition
to "Europe."
See
Andrzej Walicki, Poland Between East and West: The Controversies over Self
in Partitioned Poland, the August Zaleski Lec
Definition and Modernization
tures, Harvard University, 18-22 April 1994 (Cambridge, Mass.: Ukrainian
Research
Institute,
1994).
3LarryWolff, Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on theMind

the Enlightenment (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994).
of
4Daniel Beauvois, The Noble, the Serf and the Revizor: The Polish Nobility Be
tween Tsarist Imperialism and the Ukrainian Masses (1831-1863)
(Chur, Swit
zerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1991), translation by Barbara Reising
of Le Noble, le Serf et le Revizor: La noblesse polonaise entre le tsarisme et les
masses ukrainiennes (1831-1863)
1984),
(Paris: Archives Con-temporaines,
and La Bataille de la terre en Ukraine, 1863-1914: Les Polonais et les conflits
socio-ethniques (Lille: Presses Universitaires de Lille, 1993).
Ukraine:
Duchinski
5Ivan L. Rudnytsky,
"Franciszek
inModern
in Essays
Thought,"
Research
Ukrainian
University,
on
works
and
Ukrainian
Polish-Ukrainian
his
on Ukrainian
Impact
Political
Mass.:
(Cambridge,
194. For references
History
Institute,
1987),
see Roman
relations
115
Harvard
to recent
"After
Szporluk,
Empire:
What?" Dcedalus 123 (3) (Summer 1994): 21-39. See also Ilya Prizel, "The In
in Roman
fluence of Ethnicity on Foreign Policy: The Case of Ukraine,"
States of
in
Russia
New
National
and
and
the
Ethnicity
Identity
Szporluk, ed.,
N.Y.
(Armonk,
volume,
by Peter J. Potichnyj,
Canadian
(Edmonton:
M.
and London:
Eurasia
Institute
E. Sharpe,
ed., Poland
of Ukrainian
An
103-128.
1994),
earlier
and Ukraine: Past and Present

Studies,
contains
1980),
es
useful
says.
6Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on theOrigin and Spread

(London and New York: Verso, 1991), 6.
of Nationalism
7Liah Greenfeld,
Harvard
to Modernity
(Cambridge, Mass.:
treatment
254.
For a comprehensive
1992),
Press,
see Iver B. Neumann,
in Russian
and politics,
thought
University
of
place
Five Roads
Nationalism:
"Europe"
of
and the Idea of Europe: A Study in Identity and International Relations

and New York: Routledge, 1996).
in the British
8Since
case
the defining
the "Other,"
was
"negatio,"
the
Russia
(London
and
Catholicism,
in politics, the Catholic France, the Irish did not qualify for admission. See Linda
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale Uni
Colley, Britons: Forging theNation, 1707-1837
Press,
versity
that national
5-6.
1992),
"like
identity,
Peter
Sahlins's
cites, with
Colley
approval,
is contingent
ethnic or communal
identity,
argument
and rela
tional: it is defined by the social or territorial boundaries drawn to distinguish

the
collective
self
and
its implicit
the other."
negation,
See
5-6,
Ibid.,
quoting
from Peter Sahlins, Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees
(Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, 1989), 271.
9Miroslav Hroch, Social Preconditions of National Revival inEurope: A Compara
tive Analysis of the Social Composition of Patriotic Groups among the Smaller
European
1985).
Nations,
See Ernest
trans.
Ben
Fowkes
1994),
Blackwell,
bridge, Mass.:
tion of the emergence
of nations.
10According
Narratives
to Prasenjit
Duara,
of Modern
(Cambridge:
Cambridge
with Nationalism
Encounters
Gellner,
Rescuing
China
for an analysis
182-200,
History
from
University
and
(Oxford
of Hroch's
the Nation:
Press,
Cam
interpreta
Questioning
(Chicago, 111.and London: University of Chicago
is formed when
the perception
Press,
1995),
65-66,
"a[n]
incipient
nationality
. .when a
are [sic] transformed.
of the boundaries
of community
succeeds
group
a historical
on both
in imposing
narrative
of descent
and/or
dissent
heteroge
. .coin the word
neous
to suggest
Iwill.
and related
cultural
discent
the
practices.
.. .The narrative
of these two signifiers.
o? discent
is used to define
and
porosity
. .as
a community,
a
mobilize
often
cultural
practice.
by privileging
particular
as
or common
the constitutive
of community?such
principle
language,
religion,
out that "[historically,
At the same time, Duara
historical
experience."
points
is unique
and new
as a type of
identity
tional revolution
which.
what
about
of
the nation-state."
Greenfeld's
(and my
is not an epistemological
category,
of consciousness,"
institu
but "the global
its own extremely
powerful
representations
to that of
treatment
is close
of nationalism
nationalism
or a mode
such
Duara's
.produced
overall
own)
position:
"What
is novel
about
modern
nationalism
is
116
Roman Szporluk
of nation-states."
Ibid.,
system
with
concerned
nation-formation,
ed. John B. Thompson,
Power,
the world
primarily
Symbolic
or
he is not exclusively
Although
Pierre
Bourdieu's
and
Language
trans. Gino
and Matthew
Raymond
8-9.
Adamson (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), sheds light on

the intellectual effort it involves.
nFor
a reminder
about
wielu narodow
to say,
is very
large.
the decomposition
of the Ukrainian
nation
needless
12I discuss
gence
see
this,
the Commonwealth
in Paul
sion,"
for
of
ed., The
Latawski,
"Problem
Chojnowski,
Polish
Reconstruction
na
narodowosciowy
Russian
E. Kohut,
Centralism
and
emer
nations
of
in 1918: Notes
for Discus
1914-23
(London:
of Poland,
ziemiach
is taken from Andrzej

.
polskich.
Garlicki, ed., Z dziejow Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej

Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, 1986), 180.
13Zenon
successor
the other
from Herzl
quotation
to the
in relation
nation
of
indirectly,
in "Polish-Ukrainian Relations
1992), 41-54. My
Macmillan,
Rzeczpospolita
1985), 38ff. The literature on this question,
the historic
and,
Tomaszewski,
Jerzy
example
(Warsaw: Czytelnik,
.,"
in Andrzej
(Warsaw: Wydawnictwa
Ukrainian
Autonomy:
Imperial
Ab
1760s-1830s
sorption of the Hetmanate,
(Cambridge, Mass.: Ukrainian Re
search Institute, 1988; distributed by Harvard University Press), 63. An excerpt
from the Divovych poem is included in Ralph Lindheim and George S. N.
an Intellectual
eds., Towards
Luckyj,
69-70.
of Toronto
Press,
1996),
of Ukraine
History
(Toronto:
University
to Modernity,
in origi
238-239;
emphasis
comments:
"The number
Greenfeld
of
discussion,
it is beyond
Ukrainians
the non-noble
intellectuals
is extraordinary;
among
a very prominent
role in the activities
of the eighteenth
doubt
that they played
Ibid., 531, n. 90.
century
intelligentsia...."
Nationalism:
14Greenfeld,
note
In a source
nal.
Five
Roads
to this
L. Keenan
15Edward
that Muscovite
argues
"These
of Kiev;
Certain
Beliefs
Mythical
a continuation
being
"On
Keenan,
Starr,
ed.,
The
N.Y.
(Armonk,
sees it, modern
of History
Legacy
M.
and London:
Russia
not
people
and Russian
in Russia
E.
Sharpe,
not
did
were
and
1994),
an
have
even
awareness
of
of Kiev."
thinking
in S. Frederick
Behaviors,"
the New
States
of Eurasia
esp. 23. As Keenan
19-40,
have
been misled
and the general
by certain
public,
without
the
"Russian"
that they were
history
realizing
early
mis
later
the
time
Russian
of
Those
era,
i.e.,
nation-building.
product
concern
and Kiev
the links between
("the Kiev myth"),
Muscovy
conceptions
and the popular
the nature
of the Mongol
("the Tatar-yoke
myth"),
period
myth
or Greek
"one of the great mystifications
of all
of an alleged
influence,
Byzantine
myths
scholars,
regarding
of a much
..." Keenan,
"On Certain
of European
cultural
27,
Beliefs,"
Mythical
history.
see Keenan,
East Slavs before
1654:
"Muscovite
37. Also
of Other
Perceptions
et al, eds., Ukraine
in Peter J. Potichnyj
An Agenda
and Russia
for Historians,"
in Their Historical Encounter

Studies Press, 1992), 20-38.
16"Poletyka,
Ukraine,
17David
in Danylo
Husar
entry
Hryhorii,"
vol. IV (Toronto:
of Toronto
University
Saunders,
(Edmonton:
(Edmonton: Canadian
The
Canadian
Ukrainian
Institute
on
Impact
of Ukrainian
Struk,
Press,
Institute of Ukrainian
ed.,
1993),
Encyclopedia
94.
Russian
Culture,
Studies,
University
1750-1850
of Alberta,
of
Ukraine:
na
A. M.
Zamechaniia
9, quoting
1985),
Lazarevsky,
o malorusskom
i o statutovykh
D. P. Millera
dvorianstve
istoricheskie
sudakh
117
monografii
n.p.,
(Kharkiv:
1898), 15.
Encounters
Russia:
Intellectual
and Political
Imperial
to the Nineteenth
in Peter J. Potichnyj,
Marc
Century,"
and
18Marc Raeff,
"Ukraine
from
the Seventeenth
Raeff, Jaroslaw Pelenski, and Gleb N. Zekulin, eds., Ukraine and Russia in
Their Historical Encounter (Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies
Press, 1992), 82.
case
80. This
19Ibid.,
poses
20Anderson,
illustrates
Bourdieu's
that "political
subversion
presup
the vision
of the world."
Bourdieu,
70-71.
Communities,
Imagined
of
127-128.
Power,
Symbolic
thesis
a subversion
subversion,
cognitive
and
Language
The
is from
quote
Edward
Said,
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1978), 136.
Orientalism
21For a review
of competing
of
models
the Russian
nation
in the context
of
tsarist
Russia's and the Soviet Union's politics, seemy "The Fall of the Tsarist Empire
in Karen
and the USSR: The Russian Question and Imperial Overextension,"
Dawisha and Bruce Parrott, eds., The End of Empire? The Transformation of
the USSR inComparative Perspective (Armonk,N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1997), 65-93.
22
Andreas Kappeier, Russland als Vielvolker reich: Entstehung, Geschichte, Zerfall
(Munich: C. H. Beck, 1992), 179.
23PaulBushkovitch, "The Ukraine in Russian Culture, 1790-1860: The Evidence
of the Journals," Jahrbuch er fur Geschichte Osteuropas 39 (3) (1991): 343
344.
See also D.
Debate
about
B. Saunders,
Critics
of Gogol's
and the
Vechera
"Contemporary
narodnosf
Russian
Harvard
Ukrainian
StudiesV
(1831-1832),"
(1) (March 1981): 66-82.

24Omeljan Pritsak, "Prorok," Kyivs'ka starovyna (2) (1994): 11-12.
25George
Century:
in Their
G. Grabowicz,
A Formulation
the Problem,"
227.
Encounter,
Historical
26F. Bulgarin,
in the Nineteenth
Relations
Literary
et al., Ukraine
in Potichnyj
and Russia
"Ukrainian-Russian
of
(St. Petersburg:
Vospominaniia
n.p.,
1846-1849),
cited
I, 200-201;
inAlexander Riasanovsky, Nicholas I and Official Nationality inRussia, 1825

1855 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, 1967),
138. Riasanovsky
also mentions
rename
the country
"Nikolayevia."
27Grabowicz,
Formulation
"Ukrainian-Russian
28See Alexander
of
the Problem,"
V.
Riasanovsky,
another
Literary
226-227.
A
tion
Leader
1982),
of
Africa,"
South, East, West
the Czech
25.
In his
Renascence
"Slovan
to
later proposed
in the Nineteenth
of Ways:
Government
Century:
and
the Edu
in David
Held,
ed.,
Prospects
for
(Cambridge: Polity Press, 1993), 344.
30KarelHavl?cek, Politick? spisy, ed. Z. Tobolka

quoted in Barbara K. Reinfeld, Kar elHavl?cek
graphs,
slightly
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976).
"Sub-Saharan
Hawthorn,
Democracy: North,
who
Relations
Parting
cated Public in Russia, 1801-1855

29Geoffrey
author,
I, 70;
(Prague: n.p., 1900-1903),
(1821-1856): A National Libera
East European
Colo.:
(Boulder,
a Cech,"
Havl?cek
that Slavs
argued
Mono
are not
118
Roman Szporluk
as
nation,
between
shown
by
two
these
the Polish-Russian
that
peoples
relationship:
each
exclude
they
hood! The Poles claim the Russians areMongolians,
"So
other
intense
while
is the hatred
a Slav
from
brother
the Russians call the
bone of contention
which
has divided
every genera
of Ukraine.
is the possession
Both
the Poles
and the
Russians
this land on the basis of related
claim
The Russians
nationality.
point
to the fact that they share the same religion with
retort
the Ruthenes;
the Poles
to acquire
with
the formation
of the Uniate
church. At present
the Russians
hope
Poles
Sarmatians.
tion
of Poles
The
main
and Russians
the Ukraine by Russifying
the people as the Poles have been able to Polonize the
Lithuanians,
the upper
by alienating
classes
the rest of
from
own
their
people."
Havl?cek, Politick? spisy^ I, 63, cited by Reinfeld, Kar elHavl?cek, 24-25.

31Mykhailo
iHalychyna,"
"Ukraina
Hrushevsky,
visnyk
Literaturno-Naykovyi
XXXVI (1906): 489-496; cited inThomas M. Prymak, Mykhailo Hrushevsky:

The Politics of National Culture (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987),
n.
79-80
32John A. Armstrong,
in Potichnyj
ness,"
125-139.
political
Anthony
in the Evolution
and History
of Ukrainian
"Myth
et al., Ukraine
in Their Historical
and Russia
Smith has noted
that ". . .ethnic communities
Conscious
Encounter,
often develop
that are constitutive

of the political
(or
community
myths
is between
of relevance
.The main
distinction
here
..)...
"dy
to
"communal"
between
attached
mythomoteurs,
political
myths
or those based
on the ideal of the sacred
or people."
community
kingship
myths,
mythomoteurs.
nastic"
and
sacral
inComparative
Anthony D. Smith, "Ethnic Identity and Territorial Nationalism

in Alexander
Perspective,"
J. Motyl,
ed.,
Nationalities, History and Comparison

Columbia University
Press, 1992),
"mythomoteur"
ward
ethical
and
the
upheld
social
Thus, itwas by definition

ity"
that
also
Russians."
1904);
reprinted
and
that
for
carried
for
its existence.
incompatible with the official definition of "national

the constitutive
Hrushevsky,
33Mykhailo
ratsional'noho
ukladu
in the Study of the USSR (New York:

see it, the Ukrainian
50. As we
and
that made
autocracy
"Little
included
Soviet
about
Theoretically
of a culturally
defined
people
on the state
did not depend
idea
values
Thinking
element
of an
imperial
skhema
'russkoi'
"Zvychaina
skhidnoho
slovianstva"
istoriyi
translated
in A. Gregorovich,
Russian
istoriyi
(St. Petersburg:
ed., The Traditional
identity
sprava
n.p.,
Scheme
of "Russian" History and the Problem of a Rational Organization of the His

tory of the East Slavs (Winnipeg: Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences, 1966).
34Ivan Franko, "Odvertyi lyst do halyts'koi ukraiins'koi molodezhi," Zibrannia
tvoriv u piatdesiaty tomakh (Kiev:Naukova dumka, 1976), vol. 45,404, cited in
idei ta evropeiskyi
kontekst:
Oksana Zabuzhko, Filosof?a ukrains'koi
Frankivskyi period (Kiev:Naukova dumka, 1992), 61. (The title of Zabuzhko's
book reveals itsmessage: "The Philosophy of the Ukrainian Idea and its Euro
pean Context: The Period of Franko.")
35Fedotov, "Budet li sushchestvovat' Rossiya?,"
kuVture,
Filosofy
russkogo
posleoktiabr'skogo
inO Rossiyi
zarubezb'ya
i russkoy filosofskoy
(Moscow:
Nauka,
1990), 455.
36Ibid.,461.
Ukraine:
37Ann Devroy
and
James
Rupert,
"Clinton
Commends
Ukrainians
119
for Sticking
with
Tough Reforms," Washington Post, 13May 1995, A20. In 1997, demonstra

tors inMinsk, at a solidarity rally with Serb and Bulgarian democrats, displayed
not
want
to
in Europe,
in Russia!"
live
Literaturnaia
5 February
Gazeta,
pugaiut,"
politiki
not
as a state, one may
will
of Belarus
surmise,
depend
the
slogan
"Kremlevskie
future
"we
people speak Belorussian

convince
ness
that
people
to "the world."
Oleg
Moroz,
9. The
1997,
on how
many
(rather than Russian) but on the nationalists' ability to
the republic's
independence
from Moscow
means
its open

Ukraine

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Ukraine: From an Imperial Periphery to a Sovereign State

Author(s): Roman Szporluk

From an Imperial Periphery

of the largest states of Europe,

from its much

the confines of the entity from which

both the Russian

identity and the Polish identity. But while

From an Imperial Periphery

BASIC FACTS OF HISTORICAL

very clear some

I and beyond, was

1848 until World War

in Galicia and Volhynia

gary from theMiddle Ages until 1919, when

itwas annexed to the

and became Soviet only in 1940, being formally incorporated into

until 1918. After a brief period of independence as the West

Soviet only when

since then, under Soviet domi

the time when

From an Imperial Periphery

to the East, to Russian

SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

are a very modern

nation could be defined as a community of people living within

from religion. Modern

ated linguistic variations,

though only within

From an Imperial Periphery to a Sovereign State

object was a scholarly

ideas, and values. Thus,

ing Jewish identity could be voiced by other national writers

From an Imperial Periphery

one of the earliest

sense. This Little

the tsar. The

called for the elimi

for those who

call the Ukrainian

IPs reign (1762-1796),

St. Petersburg held the view

that as much as 50 percent of this first mass of Russian

that the nation

in the front ranks of the nascent

project did not then define the all-Russian

From an Imperial Periphery to a Sovereign State

such a reading of history gravely

they and the

to the grand principality

Even if politically expedient,

of the Slavic family and that the

The Idea of Ukraine

From an Imperial Periphery to a Sovereign State

essay argues for the latter interpretation.

land and people inwhich

they had been born. They already pos

land and of a larger world

it the case that the monarch

The first definition of Ukraine was historical. The Little Russia

aware, and took pride in the fact, that

However much he disapproved of the social system of old Po

tradition, between Little Russia,

Whether framed in ethnographic, linguistic, or historical terms,