EUROPEAN HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY OF UKRAINIANS IN THE CONTEXT OF OCCIDENTALISM OF STATEHOOD-ORIENTED HISTORIANS
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/2520-2626/2026.38.15
Abstract
Abstract. This article examines the European historical and cultural identity of Ukrainians as interpreted by historians of the statehood-oriented school, viewed through the lens of their Occidentalist outlook. It argues that, in the works of V. Lypynskyi, S. Tomashivskyi, B. Krupnytskyi, I. Krypiakevych, L. Okinshevych, S. Dnistrianskyi and others, Occidentalism functioned not as a formalised methodology but as a broader intellectual orientation shaping their understanding of the Ukrainian historical process as inherently embedded in the European civilisational sphere.
The study focuses on how this European orientation was substantiated across four strands within statehood historiography: conceptual history, positivist scholarship, studies of contemporary history, and legal-historical research. Within these approaches, Ukraine’s belonging to Europe was demonstrated through analyses of state formation, legal institutions, military and cultural traditions, political culture, and international legal subjectivity, as well as through the reconstruction of the continuity of state-building practices. Particular attention is given to the influence of M. Hrushevskyi, especially his idea of a ‘Western orientation’, in shaping the Occidentalist perspective of these historians.
The article shows that appeals to European historical and cultural identity primarily served as a means of scholarly legitimation of the Ukrainian historical process and as a response to imperial and pseudo-historical narratives that portrayed Ukraine as derivative or inherently stateless. In this way, the statehood school integrated the Ukrainian historical experience into the broader European narrative as a typologically comparable and equal component.
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