The Tragedy of Ukraine: Nationalism versus Patriotism

The conflict in Ukraine has deep domestic roots. At the heart of the crisis is the attitude of the state to what I call “the Other Ukraine”—the one-third of the population that regards its Russian cultural heritage as fully compatible with a Ukrainian civic identity. The reluctance of the state to regard this ethnos, geographically concentrated in the East and South, as a legitimate part of the modern Ukrainian nation has created a tragic cycle that entangles Ukrainian politics.

Untangling it will require recognizing that the problems in Ukrainian society today are as much emotional as they are institutional. Classical Greek tragedy can assist in this because it performed a similar therapeutic function in Athenian society—it sought to induce a change of heart, known as catharsis, in order to foster a more harmonious society.

Nicolai N. Petro is Professor of Political Science and the former Silvia-Chandley Professor of Peace Studies and Nonviolence at the University of Rhode Island.. His books include, Ukraine in Crisis (Routledge, 2017), Crafting Democracy (Cornell, 2004), The Rebirth of Russian Democracy (Harvard, 1995), and Russian Foreign Policy, co-authored with Alvin Z. Rubinstein (Longman, 1997). A graduate of the University of Virginia, he is the recipient of Fulbright awards to Russia and to Ukraine, as well as fellowships from the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies in Washington, D.C., and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. As a Council on Foreign Relations Fellow, he served as special assistant for policy toward the Soviet Union in the U.S. Department of State from 1989 to 1990. In addition to his scholarly publications on Russia and Ukraine, he has written for Asia Times, American Interest, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, The Guardian (UK), The Nation, The National Interest, New York Times, and Wilson Quarterly.

His current project looks at classical Greek tragedy for solutions to the conflict in Ukraine. More information can be found on his professional website: www.npetro.net.

The visit of Nicolai N. Petro is organised in collaboration with Stefano Bianchini from the Department of Political and Social Sciences.