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On the Role of Historical Myths in Nation-State Building: The Case of Ukraine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2019

Anton Oleinik
Anton Oleinik*
Affiliation:
Departmentof Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, Canada, and Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation
*
*Corresponding author. Email: aoleynik@mun.ca
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Abstract

This article offers an overview of myths that may become a foundation of for shared memories of the Ukrainian nation’s past. According to Anthony Smith, common historical myths play a key role in the “ethnic” model of nationhood that constitutes the East European path to building a nation-state. The list of key myths that help constitute the Ukrainian identity includes Cossackdom, freedom, national independence, individualism, and democracy. It is argued that the existing historical myths have to be carefully assessed and adapted to the needs of nation-state building.

Keywords

historical mythsUkrainenation-state building
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 47 , Issue 6 , November 2019 , pp. 1100 - 1116
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2019

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