Abramova E.N., Anikin V.I., Surma I.V. Genesis of the Ukrainian nationalism and its impact upon the Russia-Ukraine relations

Abstract: This article examines the main staged of formation and development of the Ukrainian nationalistic movement, as well as analyzes its fundamental orientation and impact upon the current Russian-Ukrainian relations in this context. It is demonstrated that the Ukrainian nationalism throughout many years is used as the instrument for separating the civilizational paths of the peoples who reside in the territory of Ukraine and Russia, as well as their contraposition within the cultural-historical overview. Civilizational reorientation of Slavic nation of the neighboring state towards the Western model establishes based on the attempts to cultivate the understanding of the different from Russian national distinctness of the Ukrainians and counterpoise them in the historical-cultural regard. The conclusion is made that Urkainization, as a process of formation of the features of self-identification and specificity of the new nation that is aimed at separation of Ukrainian people from Russian and highlighting a peculiar Ukrainian Slavic ethnos, carries a systematic and artificial character, which is encouraged by the foreign political actors throughout many decades. In addition to that, the interlinked with Nazism aggressive form of Ukrainization, is the key instrument of demarcation of the civilizational paths of Ukraine and Russia. The authors also note that the forceful methods of promoting the nationalistic ideas with the specificities of their interpretations by the Ukrainian politicians, lead to active antagonism of part of the population, which creates the prerequisite for the process of Balkanization of the neighboring state.

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