Russian-Ukrainian Relations

In our fifth episode Dr. Fabian Baumann, postdoctoral research associate at the RTG Ambivalent Enmity, shares insights from his book “Dynasty Divided: A Family History of Russian and Ukrainian Nationalism” (Cornell, 2023), in which he analyses the motives behind national identity formation within a family that included both Ukrainian and Russian nationalists. In his conversation with Prof. Tanja Penter, he traces the ambivalences and paradoxa of Russian-Ukrainian relations from the Tsarist Empire to the present day. What role does language play in the formation of a national consciousness? How did Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine affect notions of national belonging? How can the Russian state simultaneously deny the existence of a distinct Ukrainian nation and ferociously fight it? Listen in for more!