The politics of language, identity and education and the current conflict in Ukraine

Has Putin drawn on Ukraine’s nation-building policies to develop a narrative about a cultural genocide on the Russian-speaking population? Has he used such a narrative to justify the invasion?

Olga and Germ will begin this seminar by providing an overview of the politics of identity in the post-Soviet world to assess the kind of national identities that the Soviet successor states are trying to build - exclusionary ethic, assimilatory cultural or inclusive civic ones - and the role these nation-building projects have played in initiating or sustaining international conflicts. 

They will then examine the history of Ukraine’s nation-building policies and Russia’s response to them from the break-up of the Soviet Union to the present. They will contest that Ukraine’s identity project can be characterised as an assimilatory cultural one, motivated, in first instance, by a concern about the extinction of the Ukrainian language, culture and identity. 

This cultural project is characterised by a prioritisation of the Ukrainian language in public spheres, particularly in education, and by a rewriting of national history. 

Although Putin has repeatedly accused Ukraine of committing genocide on the Russian-speaking population in the Donbass, there has not been evidence found of him explicitly invoking Ukraine’s identity politics to support this accusation and justify the invasion. 

This event will be particularly useful for those interested in education, politics, current affairs, eastern Europe and culture. 

LLAKES Seminar series

This seminar is part of this series. These seminars explore connections between learning and the promotion of economic competitiveness and social cohesion.

Related links

• Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES)
• Department of Education, Practice and Society

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