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Ukraine dominated international headlines as the Euromaidan protests engulfed Ukraine in 2013-2014 and Russia invaded the Crimea and the Donbas, igniting a new Cold War. Written from an insider's perspective by the leading expert on Ukraine, this book analyzes key domestic and external developments and provides an understanding as to why the nation's future is central to European security. In contrast with traditional books that survey a millennium of Ukrainian history, author Taras Kuzio provides a contemporary perspective that integrates the late Soviet and post-Soviet eras. The book be

"A definitive contemporary political, economic, and cultural history from a leading international expert, this is the first single-volume work to survey and analyze Soviet and post-Soviet Ukrainian history since 1953 as the basis for understanding the nation today. Ukraine dominated international headlines as the Euromaidan protests engulfed Ukraine in 2013-2014 and Russia invaded the Crimea and the Donbas, igniting a new Cold War. Written from an insider's perspective by the leading expert on Ukraine, this book analyzes key domestic and external developments and provides an understanding as to why the nation's future is central to European security. In contrast with traditional books that survey a millennium of Ukrainian history, author Taras Kuzio provides a contemporary perspective that integrates the late Soviet and post-Soviet eras. The book begins in 1953 when Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died during the Cold War and carries the story to the present day, showing the roots of a complicated transition from communism and the weight of history on its relations with Russia. It then goes on to examine in depth key aspects of Soviet and post-Soviet Ukrainian politics; the drive to independence, Orange Revolution, and Euromaidan protests; national identity; regionalism and separatism; economics; oligarchs; rule of law and corruption; and foreign and military policies. Moving away from a traditional dichotomy of "good pro-Western" and "bad pro-Russian" politicians, this volume presents an original framework for understanding Ukraine's history as a series of historic cycles that represent a competition between mutually exclusive and multiple identities. Regionally diverse contemporary Ukraine is an outgrowth of multiple historical Austrian-Hungarian, Polish, Russian, and especially Soviet legacies, and the book succinctly integrates these influences with post-Soviet Ukraine, determining the manner in which political and business elites and everyday Ukrainians think, act, operate, and relate to the outside world."--

Post-communist democratic revolutions have, so far, taken place in six countries: Slovakia (1998), Croatia (1999-2000), Serbia (2000), Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004), and Kyrgyzstan (2005). The seven chapters in this volume situate these events within a theoretical and comparative perspective. The book draws upon extensive experience and field research conducted by political scientists specializing in comparative democratization, regime politics, political transitions, electoral studies, and the post-communist world. The papers by Valerie Bunce and Sharon Wolchik, Henry Hale, Paul D'Anieri, Da.

Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; List of Tables; Introduction; 1 Borders: Theory and Practice; Empires, Minorities and Borders; Borders as National Symbols; Potential Territorial and Border Disputes; Separatism and Public Attitudes towards Borders; Conclusions; 2 Regionalism and Separatism in Ukraine; Regionalism; Is Regionalism a Threat to Ukraine's Borders?; Centre-Periphery Relations; The Donbas; Regional Clans; Conclusions; 3 Russia-Ukraine: The Border Issue; Ukrainian Insecurity; Territorial Conflict with Russia; Territorial Claims; Tuzla; Ukrainian Responses.

The Crimea was the only region of Ukraine in the 1990s where separatism arose and inter-ethnic conflict potentially could have taken place between the Ukrainian central government, ethnic Russians in the Crimea, and Crimean Tatars. Such a conflict would have inevitably drawn in Russia and Turkey. Russia had large numbers of troops in the Crimea within the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet. Ukraine also was a nuclear military power until 1996. This book analyses two inter-related issues. Firstly, it answers the question why Ukraine-Crimea-Russia traditionally have been a triangle of conflict over a.

This volume brings together 15 articles divided into four sections on the role of nationalism in transitions to democracy, the application of theory to country case studies, and the role played by history and myths in the forging of national identities and nationalisms. The book develops new theories and frameworks through engaging with leading scholars of nationalism: Hans Kohn's propositions are discussed in relation to the applicability of the term 'civic' (with no ethno-cultural connotations) to liberal democracies, Rogers Brubaker over the usefulness of dividing European states into 'civi.

Ukraine: State and Nation Building explores the transformation of Soviet Ukraine into an independent state and examines the new elites and their role in the state building process, as well as other attributes of the modern nation-state such as borders, symbols, myths and national histories. Extensive primary sources and interviews with leading members of Ukranian elites, show that state building is an integral part of the transition process and cannot be divorced from democratization and the establishment of a market economy

The Ukrainian vote for independence in December 1991 effectively ended the existence of the Soviet Union, and propelled one of Europe's submerged nations on to the world stage. The main theme of the book is the transition in Ukraine from the policies of 'Perestroika' and 'Glasnost' to the ultimate break with Moscow

This book explores the transformation of Soviet Ukraine into an independent state. It finds that state building is an integral part of the transition process, as much as democratization and the establishment of a market economy.

AbstractThis article critically analyses commonly used descriptions of Ukrainian politics as divided between 'nationalist' versus 'pro‐Russian', and 'ethnic' versus 'civic' forces which do not adequately explain Ukrainian politics or understand the roots of Russian military aggression against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. An alternative framework is provided of competition between Ukrainian identity, which believes Ukrainians are a distinct people different to Russians, and pan‐Russian identity, which believes Russians and Ukrainians are 'fraternal brothers' who have always been and always will be united in the Russian World. The Euromaidan Revolution, Russian military aggression in 2014, increasing domination of Ukrainian identity policies and weakness of pro‐Russian political parties led to the progressive marginalisation of pan‐Russian identity in Ukraine. The marginalisation of pan‐Russian identity and unwillingness of Presidents Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to implement the Russian version of the 2014‐2015 Minsk Accords, which would have transformed Ukraine into a Russian satellite, led to the Kremlin's decision to launch a full‐scale invasion on 24 February 2022. The goals of Russia's full‐scale invasion were and remain regime change (i.e., installation of a pro‐Russian puppet regime), destruction of Ukrainian identity (i.e., de‐nazification) and its replacement with a hegemonic pan‐Russian identity in a truncated (i.e., without Crimea and New Russia [southeast Ukraine]) Little Russian satellite controlled by Russia (i.e., de‐militarisation).