The Donbas between Ukraine and Russia: The Use of History in Political Disputes

Статья // Journal of Contemporary History. — Vol. 30, No.2 (April, 1995). — pp. 265-289.The promotion of rival historiographies takes on particular importance, especially if the competition over a given territory, as is often the case now in Eastern Europe, takes place during times of flux, when different ethno-regional groups "seek and find different levels of ancestry, history, culture and territory appropriate to changing circumstances and needs". Rival groups' ethno-histories may overlap or be difficult to distinguish, and large numbers of individuals may fall betwixt and between, their loyalties up for grabs.
The potential for historiographical rivalry to lay the basis for political conflict in such conditions is obvious, especially in contemporary post-communist Eastern Europe where examples of such disputes abound. This paper will focus on one such example: the Donbas region, historically poised between Ukraine and Russia, part of the newly independent Ukraine since 1991 but still the subject of bitter argument between the two states.