Russian Nationalism and the Russian-Ukrainian War

In: Europa country perspectives

Abstract

This book is the first to provide an in-depth understanding of the 2014 crisis, Russia's annexation of Crimea and Europe's only war between Russia and Ukraine. The book provides a historical and contemporary understanding behind President Vladimir Putin Russia's obsession with Ukraine and why Western opprobrium and sanctions have not deterred Russian military aggression. The volume provides a wealth of detail about Russia's inability in the Tsarist Empire, Soviet Union and since 1991 in accepting Ukraine as an independent country and Ukrainians as a separate people, pointing to the sources of this unacceptance in Russian national identity. In the USSR, Russian identity identified with the USSR and not the Russian SFSR. A post-imperial Russian civic identity grounded in the Russian Federation was unpopular and has been dwarfed by a far larger Russian 'imagined community.' Integration of Tsarist Russian historiography and White Russian émigré chauvinism prior to the 2014 crisis transformed and hardened Russian nationalist denial of the existence of Ukraine and Ukrainians. Ending Crimea's occupation and the Russian-Ukrainian war will meet obstacles from de facto President-for-life Putin and Russia's national identity towards Ukraine and Ukrainians.