Identity in the Empire Borderlands: A Comparative Account of Ukrainian and Belarusian Nationalism

ABSTRACT:

Ukraine and Belarus are similar in a number of respects; however, they differ greatly in terms of the strength of their respective national movements. This essay argues that this difference may be attributed to a) Ukraine’s comparatively richer historical repository from which national myths are drawn and b) historical policies taken by Austria-Hungary and tsarist Russia, and later by Soviet authorities, which have facilitated the development of the Ukrainian language and the association of Catholicism as a Ukrainian religion in western Ukraine, but prevented the association of language and religion with a Belarusian national identity in western Belarus. This paper concludes by examining western Belarus’ limited contribution to Belarusian nationalism, and attributes this largely to ‘Belarusisation’ policies adopted by the Catholic Church. Both western Ukraine and western Belarus are culturally and historically distinct from their respective eastern counterparts, which are more Russified; however, only western Ukraine has succeeded in cultivating a viable nationalist movement. Despite this peculiarity, no notable works compare western Ukraine and western Belarus in terms of their contributions to their respective nationalist movements. This essay serves to fill this gap.