Ukrainian nationalism made worldwide news in the wake of the EuroMaidan revolution and the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2014. Invoked by regional actors and international commentators on all sides of the ongoing conflict, the far-rightwing “integral” Ukrainian nationalism of the 1930s-1940s has moved to the center of debates about Ukraine's domestic political culture and external orientation between the EU and Russia. Notwithstanding the weaponization of the memory and symbols of this contentious doctrine and the movements it inspired, fundamental questions about its history remain: How and why did Ukrainian “integral nationalism” appear when it did? What were its contents, influences, and consequences? Was it a regional variety of fascism? Who articulated it and how did it evolve? This talk will survey the intellectual roots, transnational entanglements, and ideological paradoxes of the twentieth century’s most extreme Ukrainian nationalist tradition by tracing the biography of its “spiritual father”—Dmytro Dontsov—from late imperial Russia to postwar North America.
Join at www.youtube.com/user/huriyt