Ethnocultural Factor of the Formation and Preservation of the Identity of the Population of the Ukrainian-Russian Borderlands: Historical and Ethnographic Aspects (Exemplified by Slobozhanshchyna)

Author

Rendiuk Teofil

a Doctor of History, a leading research fellow at the Ukrainian Ethnological Centre Department of M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine).

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-1361-0316

Ethnocultural Factor of the Formation and Preservation of the Identity of the Population of the Ukrainian-Russian Borderlands: Historical and Ethnographic Aspects (Exemplified by Slobozhanshchyna)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the study of historical, ethnographic, cultural, religious processes and linguistic mutual influences in the border regions of Ukraine, bordering the russian federation or are historical and ethnographic Ukrainian territories in a neighbouring country, on the formation and preservation of the identity of the population of eastern Ukrainian borderlands. The work is aimed at studying the specified aspects within the boundaries of Slobozhanshchyna – the eastern region of the Ukrainian-russian borderlands. It is determined that just this Ukrainian historical-ethnographic region has undergone the largest russification, taking place successively during the times of the moscow Kingdom, the russian Empire, and the Soviet Union. This negative process had two main waves: the first, which has started in the 18th century after the abolition of the Cossack system and the introduction of russian administration, and the second one, more active, which has happened in the 20th century and included a policy of assimilation and a reduction of the Ukrainian population in the region. The first wave has led to the elimination of self-government and the introduction of russian institutions, and the second wave led to a decrease in the percentage of Ukrainians during the ussr period. The current aggressive russia has moved to an extremely negative way of de-Ukrainization of the region, namely the physical destruction of Ukrainians through a military invasion as a part of the full-scale phase of the war against Ukraine launched in 2014. It is concluded that the quantitative imbalance between ethnic Ukrainians and russians in this border region in favour of the latter is explained, on the one hand, by russia’s intensive assimilationist policy towards ethnic Ukrainians, and on the other hand, by insufficient attention and support of Ukrainians in the neighbouring state by Ukraine itself.

Keywords

region, borderland, Slobozhanshchyna, russification, aggression.

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