The Promise of Ukraine

Abstract This book is a study of the construction of the concept of modern Ukraine. Based on largely unused archival sources, it presents Ukraine as one of the key political concepts of Central and Eastern European history, which emerged in the second half of the long nineteenth century. While tracing the development of the concept from the initial debates in the 1840s until the attempts to create the Ukrainian state in 1917, the book argues that the concept of modern Ukraine had spatial, temporal, and political dimensions. Most importantly, it shows how the concept had a future-oriented temporality and was envisaged as a land of emancipated people, free of political despotism, social inequality, economic exploitation, and national oppression. Incorporating a wide range of hitherto forgotten voices and perspectives into the intellectual history of Ukraine, the book delineates the manifold stages of the concept’s construction, including its spatialisation, temporalisation, politicisation, dissemination, and territorialisation. By situating the concept of modern Ukraine within a broader regional context, this study contributes to the historiography of both Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as conceptual history and histories of nationalism.