Ukraine. Nation-building Processes

The presentation of the Ukrainian translation of Ukraine. Nation-building Processes (Ukraina. Protsesy natsiotvorennia) took place. The presentation was organized with support of the Embassy of Austria in Ukraine, the OeAD Cooperation Office in Lviv, and the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe.

This volume is a collection of essays on a broad variety of topics which reflects recent (mostly Western) scholarship on the history of Ukraine. It was published with the support of the Embassy of Austria in Ukraine, and Raiffeisen Bank Aval. The editor of the book, Andreas Kappeler, is professor emeritus at the University of Vienna and eminent scholar of the history of Eastern Europe with a special focus on Ukraine.

Mag. Andreas Wenninger, Attache for Science and Education of the Republic of Austria to Ukraine as well as Dr. Harald Binder, Founder and President of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe were present during the event. The internationally renowned historian Prof. Yaroslav Hrytsak commented on the volume and led the discussion.

The collection is one of the most fundamental publications dedicated to Ukrainian history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, nation-building processes, and national ideology. The authors of this collection of essays seek to provide answers to pertinent questions: should the Ukrainian nation orient itself towards ethnic and linguistic, or political aspects of a civil state? How can different regions of the country with their divergent historical experience be integrated into the Ukrainian nation? To what extent did Soviet governance hinder or promote nation-building, and what is to be done today with the Soviet heritage? What shape is the attitude to the Jewish question, which played a significant role in the history of Ukraine, taking today? What is the role of history, language, religion, literature, gender, territory and war in nation building? What was the significance of the rural and urban population, the villages and cities? What is the condition of nation-building in the independent national state?

An interdisciplinary approach follows inevitably from the questions raised above. Although historians dominate among the authors, the volume also includes contributions from literary scholars and linguists, social and political scientists, well-known professionals from Austria, Canada, Germany, the USA, and Ukraine.