Russian Nationalism and the Russian-Ukrainian War (Europa Country Perspectives)

The book 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 and Putin's obsession in Russian national identity. 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.