Ukrainian nationalism

Flag of Ukraine.

Ukrainian nationalism refers to the Ukrainian version of nationalism.

Although the first state using the name "Ukraine" is fairly recent, some historians, such as Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, have cited medieval princes of Kievan Rus, who ruled over a confederation of city-based states spread over what became northern Ukraine, Belarus and the southern and central parts of European Russia, as early precedents of specifically Ukrainian statehood.

Cossack nationalism

The Cossacks played a role in awakening a Ukrainian sense of identity within the Steppes region. A dominant figure within the Cossack movement and in Ukrainian nationalist history was a Zaporozhian Cossack, named, Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Bohdan Khmelnytsky led a revolt against Polish rule in the mid-17th century. Khmelnytsky was also successful at bringing back a central government to Kiev. However this government would not last long after Khmelnytsky’s death. Khmelnytsky is still remembered and glorified in Ukrainian history in modern Ukraine.

Khmelnytsky spoke of the liberation of the "entire Ruthenian people" and recent research has confirmed that the concept of a Ruthenian nation as a religious and cultural community had existed before his revolution.

Another prominent figure in Cossack nationalism is the Hetman Ivan Mazepa. During the early 18th century, Mazepa made large financial contributions focused on the restoration of Ukrainian culture and history, for example financing major reconstructions of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, and elevating the Kiev Mogila Collegium to the rank of Academy in 1694. However, Mazepa's political ideas found little support among the Cossacks and the Ukrainians in general.

Ukrainian Nationalism in literature

One of the most prominent figures in Ukrainian nationalist history is the national poet, Taras Shevchenko who voiced the ideas of having an independent and autonomous Ukraine in the 19th century. He believed that through the people’s strength one day Ukraine would be free. While others used political and military means of fighting for Ukraine's independence, Taras Shevchenko used poetry to unite and give strength to the Ukrainian people. Shevchenko died in Saint Petersburg on March 10, 1861, the day after his 47th birthday. He is regarded as a national hero, not only by the citizens of Ukraine, but by Ukrainians that live throughout the world.

Ukrainian nationalism in the 20th century

Postcard published by the Ukrainian Brigade, “United Ukrainians fighting both Red and White Russian forces”, 1920.

World War I

With the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917 and the ensuing civil war, a group which encompassed political, community, cultural, and professional organizations was established in Kiev. This group was called the "Tsentralna Rada" (Central Council) and was headed by the historian Mykhailo Hrushevskyi. On January 22, 1918, the Tsentralna Rada declared Ukraine an independent country. This independence was recognized by the Russian government headed by Lenin, as well as the Central Powers. However, this government did not survive very long because of pressures from not only Denikin's White Guard, but also the Red Army and also German intervention.

Interwar period in Soviet Ukraine

As Bolshevik rule took hold in Ukraine, the early Soviet government had its own reasons to encourage the national movements of the former Russian Empire.

Until the early-1930s, Ukrainian culture enjoyed a widespread revival due to Bolshevik concessions known as the policy of Korenization ("indigenization"). In these years an impressive Ukrainization program was implemented throughout the republic. In such conditions, the Ukrainian national idea initially continued to develop and even spread to a large territory with traditionally mixed population in the east and south that became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

At the same time, despite the ongoing Soviet-wide anti-religious campaign, the Ukrainian national Orthodox Church was created, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. The church was initially seen by the Bolshevik government as a tool in their goal to suppress the Russian Orthodox Church, always viewed with great suspicion by the regime for its being the cornerstone of the defunct Russian Empire and the initially strong opposition it took towards the regime change. Therefore, the government tolerated the new Ukrainian national church for some time and the UAOC gained a wide following among the Ukrainian peasantry.

These events greatly raised the national consciousness among the Ukrainians and the brought about the development of a new generation of Ukrainian cultural and political elite. This in turn raised the concerns of Stalin who saw danger in the Ukrainians' loyalty towards their nation competing with their loyalty to the Soviet State and in early 1930s the "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism" was declared to be the primary problem in Ukraine. The Ukrainization policies were abruptly and bloodily reversed, most of the Ukrainian cultural and political elite was arrested and executed, and the nation was decimated with the artificial famine called the Holodomor.

World War II

With the outbreak of war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1941, many nationalists in Ukraine thought that they would have an opportunity to create an independent country once again. Some even collaborated with Nazi administration and military units. However, the German treatment of the local population quickly put an end to this.

Many of the fighters who had originally looked to the Nazis as liberators, quickly became disillusioned and formed the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) (Ukrainian: Українська Повстанська Армія - У.П.А.), which waged military campaign against Germans and later Soviet forces. The primary goal of OUN was “the rebirth, of setting everything in order, the defense and the expansion of the Independent Council of Ukrainian National State”. OUN also revived the sentiment that “Ukraine is for Ukrainians”.

Ukrainian nationalists demonstrate against Soviet Union and for a free Ukraine in 1941.

On June 30, 1941, the OUN, led by Stepan Bandera, declared an Independent Ukrainian State. This was immediately acted upon by the Nazi army, and Bandera was arrested and imprisoned from 1941 to 1944.

The UPA was a military group that took up arms first against the Nazis, and later against the Soviets (but was also responsible for war crimes during the Second World War, like the massive and extremely violent ethnic cleansing of Poles in Volhynia). Interestingly, the UPA was comprised of not only ethnic Ukrainians, but also Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Georgians, Tatars and Jews. During World War II, the UPA fought against the Polish, German and Soviet forces. After the Second World War, UPA took actions directed against Soviet rule within Ukraine. Many members of the UPA saw themselves as the armed wing of the OUN in its struggle for Ukrainian independence.

There has been much debate as to the legitimacy of UPA as a political group. UPA maintains a prominent and symbolic role in Ukrainian history and the quest for Ukrainian independence. At the same time it was deemed an insurgent or terrorist group by Soviet historiography.

Attacking of ethnic Poles during the Second World War by Ukrainian nationalists

Main article: Massacres of Poles in Volhynia

Ukrainian historian Serhy Yekelchyk writes that during 1943 and 1944 an estimated 35,000 Polish civilians and an unknown number of Ukrainian civilians in the Volhynia and Chelm regions fell victim to mutual ethnic cleansing by the UPA and Polish insurgents.. However, most Polish historians, and a number of Western scholars present a completely different description of these events. Niall Ferguson writes that around 80,000 Poles were murdered then by Ukrainian nationalists. Norman Davies in his book "No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939-1945" puts the number of murdered Polish civilians at between 200,000 and 500,000, while Timothy Snyder writes that Ukrainian nationalists killed "between forty to sixty thousand Polish civilians in Volhynia in 1943".

Modern Ukrainian nationalism

Flag of the UPA, which is currently used as Ukrainian nationalist flag.

Declaration of State Sovereignty - 1991

The most celebrated event in modern Ukrainian nationalist history is the achievement of independence from the Soviet Union after its collapse in 1991. However, even after achieving an autonomous and sovereign state, Ukrainian nationalism has still been tested. Russia has employed several strategies to bring Ukraine even more under its influence. While resisting this influence has proven to be difficult in recent history, there have been a few defining moments for Ukraine as an autonomous country. In 1999, there was a treaty that allow the creation of a union state signed by both Russia and Belarus. Ukraine was invited and encouraged to join and sign this treaty. However, with the sovereignty of Ukraine in mind, President Leonid Kuchma declined to join the treaty.

Further reading

• John Alexander Armstrong, "Ukrainian Nationalism", Columbia University Press, 1963, LCCN 62-0
• Alexander J. Motyl, "The turn to the right : the ideological origins and development of Ukrainian nationalism, 1919-1929", Published: Boulder, [Colo. : East European quarterly] ; New York : distributed by Columbia University Press, 1980, ISBN 0914710583
• Kenneth C. Farmer, "Ukrainian nationalism in the post-Stalin era : myth, symbols, and ideology in Soviet nationalities policy", Kluwer Boston, 1980, ISBN 9024724015
• Andrew Wilson, "Ukrainian Nationalism in the 1990s: A Minority Faith", Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0521574579
• Ernst B. Haas, "Nationalism, Liberalism, and Progress", Cornell University Press, 1997, ISBN 0801431085, Chapter seven: Russia and Ukraine, pp. 324-410
• Ronald Grigor Suny, Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union", Stanford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0804722471
• Paul Robert Magocsi, "The Roots of Ukrainian Nationalism: Galicia As Ukraine's Piedmont", University of Toronto Press, 2002, ISBN 0802047386
• Andrew Wilson, "The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation", Yale University Press, 2002, ISBN 0300093098

See also

• Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists
• All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom" (Svoboda)