Modern Ukraine and Russian Ukrainian Conflict

3 credits · Undergraduate

This course focuses on the formation of the modern Ukrainian nation with special emphasis on its historical relations with Russia and its recent prominence in international politics. Beginning with the medieval state of Kyivan Rus′, the Cossack past and the Ukrainian movement within the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, the course will focus on the events of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It will examine such major themes as the origins of modern Ukrainian nationalism, the Great Famine of 1932–33, WWII in Ukraine, and Ukrainian independence. We will pay special attention to two recent popular revolutions in Ukraine and the ensuing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, which will be examined in the wider historical context of imperial disintegration.