Ukraine in the Russian Empire

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Issues raised in the present Russian-Ukrainian conflict were formed in the imperial age when the Russian empire confronted questions about its own identity and its relationship to its various subjects. Ukrainians posed a particularly vexing problem for the imperial narrative. Where exactly did they fit? What of their origins and place in old Kyivan Rus? Were Russians and Ukrainians two separate peoples? Was the Cossack Hetmanate a state or just a loose polity? Was the language merely a dialect of Russian? What should their role be in the empire? This course will examine the debates on these and related issues by considering the cultural production of the intelligentsia (writers, scholars, artists) that gave voice and image to their national narratives.