Central European Papers 2017, 5(1):30-45 | DOI: 10.25142/cep.2017.002

"Politics of History" as a Threat to the Internal Peace in Ukraine

Dieter Segert
Institute of Political Science, University of Vienna

This article examines the role of the historical narratives and of the "politics of history" in the domestic politics of Ukraine. It compares the role of emotions within nationalistic and socialist ideological discourses about history. It gives an overview on different elements of national and regional identity in the country. It enquires mainly differences in self-identification, practical language use, pluralistic religious orientations, and media use. Some of the heterogeneities emerged in the past during industrialization of Soviet Ukraine. It suggests that differentiation is not objectively given but produced and exploited by political contestation for power. A main field of political polarization consists in the politics of history. It debates the outcomes of the laws on decommunization and the responsibility both of intellectuals and politicians for the nationalization politics. At the end the article stresses the possible alternative outcomes of history politics on the stability of the Ukraine as a nation state.

Keywords: post-socialism and nationalism, ethnic fragmentation of Ukraine, politics of history, decommunization

Published: October 1, 2017  Show citation

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Segert D. "Politics of History" as a Threat to the Internal Peace in Ukraine. Central European Papers. 2017;5(1):30-45. doi: 10.25142/cep.2017.002.
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