Revising history and ‘gathering the Russian lands’: Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian nationhood

Düben, Björn Alexander (2023) Revising history and ‘gathering the Russian lands’: Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian nationhood. LSE Public Policy Review, 3 (1). ISSN 2633-4046

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Abstract

While the causes of Russia’s war against Ukraine are often discussed in terms of geopolitics, another factor that seems to have been an important part of Vladimir Putin’s rationale for launching the invasion in February 2022 is his nationalist vision of Ukraine – or significant portions of it – as a historic part of Russia. In the years leading up to the invasion, Putin wrote and spoke at great length about Ukrainian history, establishing a narrative centred around the denial of Ukraine’s historic state- and nationhood, presenting Ukrainians and Russians as a single people, and laying claim to large swathes of Ukrainian territory as ‘primordial’ Russian lands. While analysts have long struggled to adequately assess it, Putin has used this narrative to justify the invasion of Ukraine to a domestic audience, and it appears to have influenced the Kremlin’s war aims and the conduct of Russian troops on the ground. There is much to suggest that Putin’s invocation of such nationalist and irredentist themes, rather than being a purely tactical move, reflects his genuine convictions. In addition to analysing how and why Putin has been (mis)interpreting Ukrainian history and denying Ukrainian nationhood, this article examines how this narrative has affected the Russian war effort and how far Putin’s territorial claims in Ukraine extend.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://ppr.lse.ac.uk/
Additional Information:	© 2023 The Author(s)
Divisions:	School of Public Policy ?? SCPP ??
Subjects:	J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) J Political Science > JZ International relations
Date Deposited:	09 Oct 2023 15:48
Last Modified:	09 Oct 2023 15:51
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/120399

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