What Lies Behind the Myths and Stereotypes About Donbas? The Historical Truth by Hiroaki Kuromiya

One of the research areas of the American historian Hiroaki Kuromiya is the modern history of Ukraine. Inparticular, he has been interested in the period of Stalin’s Great Terror, the Holodomor, as well as the special place of Donbas as a region that was always problematic for the Soviet authorities.Kuromiya became interested in Donbas in the late 1980s. For about eight years, he worked in the archives of Donetsk,Luhansk, and other cities in the region. He later published the books “Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s” and “Understanding Donbas.” The scholar argues that Donbas was nevertruly Soviet, but rather Ukrainian in its character. He sees in theregion traits of a traditional Cossack worldview—namely, a striving for freedom, autonomy, and independence from central authority. In some of its cities, Russians mayhave been the majority, but overall Donbas was ethnically Ukrainian. Therefore, Kuromiya challenges the widespread perception of Donbas as a Russified region and a stronghold of pro-Russian sentiment. From a historical perspective, thisis not the case — even as of 2014, the researcher says.Journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk speaks with Hiroaki Kuromiya about the history of Donbas, its essence and relationswith Russia, repressed Koreans and Japanese, the brutality of Stalin’s actions in East Asia, and the imperial rivalry between Moscow and Beijing.This publication has been produced with the support of the‘Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine’. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of Public Interest Journalism Lab and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Fund and/or of its Financing Partners.