Ukraine’s State-building Turnabout: The Making of National Minorities in Revolutionary Time (1917-1921)

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Gennadii Korolov, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History ; Economic and Social History
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 531732453

The project examines the history of revolutionary Ukraine from 1917 to 1923 by synthesizing diverse political and cultural experiences of the non-Ukrainian population residing in Ukraine. In previous historiography on the revolution in Ukraine, which has focused on the state-building efforts of Ukrainian national elites, the lives, and activities of non-Ukrainians have been almost marginalized. However, at that time Ukraine was a multicultural space where linguistically and confessionally heterogeneous people lived alongside one another. The analysis of the making of national minorities, and the political and cultural agency of non-Ukrainians at that time from a transnational perspective is at the core of this project. Research questions include the analysis of in-group transformations among non-Ukrainians, non-Ukrainians' interactions with nation-state authorities, and non-Ukrainians' external relations with kins. The study focuses primarily on Poles, Jews, and Russians, the most historically relevant nationalities, but also examines Germans, Greeks, Belarussians, and Moldovans, etc.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position