The course covers post-1991 developments in Ukraine with a twofold focus: on the one hand, exposing internal political and social transformations related to the post-Soviet transit, as well as their entanglements; and, on the other hand, highlighting points of divergence from the trajectories taken by neighbouring post-Soviet states, most importantly, Belarus and Russia. Given the recent salient shift in East European studies towards their re-centralization, or disentangling from the Russocentric perspective, outlining meaningful differences in Ukraine’s political makeup enables further elaborations towards the set goal.
The course is built in the chronological perspective by covering subsequent stages in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history where certain turning points punctuate this development: elections, mass protests, and military tensions.