Skip to content

Petryshyn Memorial Lecture in Ukrainian Studies

Deconstructing the East Slavic Idea in Ukraine and Belarus: What Has Happened to National Identities Since 2014?


April 16, 2018
4:15pm - 6:00pm
Room S-354, CGIS South, Harvard University 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
April 16, 2018
4:15pm - 6:00pm
Room S-354, CGIS South, Harvard University 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

About

Serhii Plokhy’s book Lost Kingdom tells the story of the rise and apparent decline of the East Slavic Idea. Andrew Wilson will take up the story of what has happened since 2014. Despite promoting the notion of a ‘Russia World’, and using ethnic arguments to justify annexing Crimea and fomenting the war in East Ukraine, the East Slavic Idea is still only one of many options for Russian identity-building. In Ukraine, by contrast, the East Slavic idea has been radically discredited. Even in Belarus, even in official circles, there is a cautious edging away from the idea.


Andrew Wilson is Professor in Ukrainian Studies at University College London (tjmsalw@ucl.ac.uk). His most recent book Ukraine Crisis: What the West Needs to Know was published by Yale University Press in 2014. A fourth, updated, edition of The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation was published in 2015. His other books includeBelarus: The Last European Dictatorship (2011), Ukraine’s Orange Revolution (2005) and Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World (2005). His latest article is ‘The Crimean Tatar Question: A Prism for Changing Nationalisms and Rival Versions of Eurasianism’, Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society , vol. 3, no. 2, 2017


This event will be streamed on YouTube for those who can't join in person.

Close