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ABSTRACT
This review article seeks to launch a debate on the state of Ukrainian–Russian studies which have become quite active among Western scholars since the 2014 crisis unfolded. Through discussion around two recently published books by Richard Sakwa and Anna Matveeva, the review investigates five common themes found in Western scholarship about the crisis and Russia–Ukraine war. These include blaming the West for the crisis, downplaying Russian military involvement, justifying Russian annexation of the Crimea, describing the conflict as a “civil war” and minimizing Russian nationalism while exaggerating Ukrainian nationalism. The review points to serious scholarly flaws in all five areas and calls for a thorough review of Western scholarship on Ukrainian–Russian studies.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Euromaidan Revolution; (2) Russia as the Victim; (3) Russia in Geopolitical Competition; (4) Russia the Troublemaker; (5) Russia as the Aggressor; (6) Domestic Russia; (7) External Russia; (8) Ukraine: War, National Minorities, Regionalism; (9) The Donbas and Eastern Ukraine.
2. Novoye Vremya (Ukraine’s most popular political weekly), Korrespondent, and Fokus. Krayina and Ukraynskyy Tyzhden are published in Ukrainian.
3. Matveeva’s (Citation2018) figure of thousands of Ukrainian dead at Ilovaysk is exaggerated. The official figures are 286 dead, 429 wounded and 300 taken prisoner (eight of whom remain in captivity). https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=127&v=gPiBENV6dfc.
7. Razumkov Center Newsletter, 51 (February 2018). http://razumkov.org.ua/uploads/newsletter/Newsletter_51.pdf.
8. Extensive polling data on identity can be found in Natsionalna Bezpeka i Oborona, 3–4 and 7–8, 2016 and 1–2, 2017: http://razumkov.org.ua/uploads/journal/ukr/NSD161-162_2016_ukr.pdf; http://razumkov.org.ua/uploads/journal/ukr/NSD165-166_2016_ukr.pdf and http://razumkov.org.ua/uploads/journal/ukr/NSD169-170_2017_ukr.pdf.
10. “Perspektyvy AR Krym: Status Rehionu,” Natsionalna Bezpeka i Oborona, 10, 2008: 19. http://old.razumkov.org.ua/ukr/files/category_journal/NSD104_ukr.pdf.
11. Interviews conducted in April 2015 in Mariupol with Mariya Podybaylo and Vadym Dzhuvaha of the Novyy Mariupol (New Mariupol) NGO and Olena Mokrynchuk, Soldatska Pochta (Soldiers Post) NGO in Volnovakha.
12. Neither Sakwa (Citation2017) or Matveeva (Citation2018) cite the objective “The Odesa Tragedy: Bloody Trail of Russian Spring” documentary made by the Odesa-based May 2 NGO. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qDtDZlg3nY.
13. See the statistics and map of casualties by regions at: http://memorybook.org.ua/indexfile/statistic.htm.
14. A Russian-speaking Ukrainian soldier says that he has served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and he could not believe that something similar could happen to Ukraine. He is disinterested in politics and nationalist movements and he just wants to defend his home and his family from foreign aggressors. Ukraine may have its problems, but it is the responsibility of Ukrainians to resolve them – not Putin. The soldier believes if Putin and Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov would take over Ukraine, his children would not have a decent life or any future, which is why he is fighting for his children and their future. “Obrashcheniye ukrayinskogo soldata k rossiyanam,” 16 December 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOXFIRdijr8.
16. The American Institute of Ukraine, which promoted a pro-Russian perspective, published two papers by James G. Jatras criticizing the Party of Regions for financing Svoboda: “A Kind of ‘Freedom’ Ukraine Doesn’t Need” (12 March 2011), http://www.aminuk.org/index.php?idmenu=12&idsubmenu=213&language=en; and “May 9 Lesson from Lviv: Svoboda a Ukraine’s Democracy, Not a Card to be Played for Political Advantage” (20 May 2011). http://www.aminuk.org/index.php?idmenu=12&idsubmenu=229&language=en.
19. The Crimean media vilifies Crimean Tatars as “jihadists,” “Russophobes, “karateli” and “radical Islamicists” and Euromaidan supporters as “anti-Semites” and “followers of Bandera.” Ukrainians are vilified as “Banderites,” “peasant people and khokhly,” “Little Russians,” “Galician Nazi’s,” “Nazi karateli units,” “Western puppets,” “followers of Hitler,”, “nationalist extremists,” “UkrNazis,” “ultranationalists”, “Russophobes,” and “fascists.” Aleksandr Burmagin, Iryna Sedova, Tetiana Pechonchyk, and Olha Skrypnyk, Yazyk vrazhdyi v informationom prostranstve Kryma, Informatsiono-Analytycheskyy Doklad, March 14–17 July 2018. https://crimeahrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Hate-book-RU.pdf.
24. The law “On the legal status and honouring of the memory of fighters for independence of Ukraine in the 20th century” lists the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) alongside many other organizations as fighters for Ukrainian independence. The Galicia Division (one of 40 Waffen SS divisions) and other units controlled by the Nazis are not honored in the law. http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/314-19.
25. https://www.rferl.org/a/italy-moves-to-crack-down-on-its-fighters-in-ukraine-s-donbas/29437946.html.
26. The term “bourgeois nationalist” in the USSR was applied by the Communist Part and KGB to any Ukrainian holding national communist, liberal or nationalistic views. Communist Party of Ukraine First Secretary Petro Shelest was deposed in 1971 and accused of “nationalism.”