Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society

Western academics, experts, and journalists specializing in Eastern Europe and Eurasia have grappled with two fundamental analytical crises in connection with the 1991 disintegration of the USSR and Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Both crises were brought about by similar lack of understanding by scholars, think tank experts, and journalists of Moscow’s relations with its neighbors. Typically, they were characterized by a downplaying of the historic and current role of Russian great power nationalism.

The authors of this issue of JSPPS investigate how the Kremlin’s recent turbo-charging of Russia’s information warfare, 24-hour TV, and social media activity has expanded on traditional pro-Russian sentiments among Western academics, experts, and journalists. The contributors analyze the downplaying of Russian nationalism, misinterpretations of the 2014 crisis, sympathetic portrayals of Crimea’s occupation, and the use of the term “civil war” rather than “Russian–Ukrainian war” for the Donbas conflict in academia as well as the think tank world and media in the UK, Germany, Poland, Japan, USA, and Canada.

The list of contributors includes: Olga Bertelsen (Tiffin University, Ohio), Paul D’Anieri (University of California at Riverside), Sanshiro Hosaka (University of Tartu), Andrei Znamenski (University of Memphis, Tennessee), and Sergei I. Zhuk (Ball State University, Indiana).

Contents

Special Section:
Issues in the History and Memory of the OUN VI

Yuliya Yurchuk and Andreas Umland: Introduction. Reassessing Ukrainian Nationalism in the Light of Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion since 2022

Per Anders Rudling: “Benderites,” "UkroNazis" and "Rashizm": Studying the Historical Ukrainian Far Right in Times of Disinformation and Hybrid Warfare

Jakub Bornio: The Polish–Ukrainian Dispute over the Volhynian Massacres: Investigating the Logic behind the Polish Narrative

Article
Natia Gamkrelidze: From “Dependent” to “Neutral” Neighbor: The Evolution of Russian Images of Georgia from 1991 to 2020

Review Essay
Illia Chedoluma: Looking Back on a Century of Ukrainian Historiography: Reflections on Serhy Yekelchyk’s Writing the Nation: The Ukrainian Historical Profession in Independent Ukraine and the Diaspora (ibidem Press, 2023)