Redrawing symbolic boundaries after Maidan: identity strategies among Russian-speaking Ukrainians

ABSTRACT

In the context of conflict between Ukraine and Russia and increasing polarisation, symbolic boundaries between the two spaces are shifting. Here I investigated the themes and strategies of border-construction between the concepts of ‘Ukrainianness’ and ‘Russianness’ through everyday acts of communication of Russian-speaking Ukrainians. The article utilises materials of 14 in-depth interviews with Russian speakers from various Ukrainian regions (2018). The results show that the polarisation and hardening of borders between Ukraine and Russia prompted two responses: acceptance vs. negotiation/denial. The underlying tension behind opposing border-narratives was caused by the competition between ethnic and civic elements for the dominance in the national identity discourse.

KEYWORDS:

• Ukraine
• Russia
• identity
• symbolic boundaries
• civic identity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Removal of Soviet monuments, renaming of Soviet toponyms (streets, cities, etc.) to Ukrainian ones.

2 In 2017, Ukraine introduced a ban on widely popular Russian internet resources Mail.ru, Yandex, VK and Odnoklassniki.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Eesti Teadusagentuur [grant number PUT1624].

Notes on contributors

Olena Nedozhogina

Olena Nedozhogina an early career researcher/PhD candidate in Media and Communications at the Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu (Estonia). Olena is focusing on topics of migration and transnationalism, transnational digital media practices and the politics of belonging.