Abstract
The Expected Nation. Empires, Peasants and the National in the Ukraine (Tsarist Russia and Soviet Union)
On Tsarist Russian and Soviet soil imperial centers and peasants had more impact on the emergence of «Ukrainians» and «Ukraine» than the Ukrainian national movement. From the Nineteenth Century on Ukrainians have been an «expected» nation. Imperial fear gave reason for repression and affirmative action concerning the national question. It had impact on the national movement, did produce patterns of reference, a territory and a political entity to which a nation successfully could be ascribed: Soviet Ukraine. For peasants, however, for most times the nation was just an abstract category of social affiliation they only opted for, if it offered economic chances. Usually other forms of affiliation, especially regional one were preferred. There were booms of the nation in peasant life and imperial policy, but there was not a continuous process of nation-building. Only after World War II a Ukrainian nation could emerge in the framework of a political entity, however as a Soviet hybrid.
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