Exclusion from One’s Own Country
The Donbass from the Point of View of Ukrainian Intellectuals
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The Ukrainian discussion on the Donbass was never free of stereotypes. After the annexation of the Crimea and the war, opinions have hardened. West Ukrainian intellectuals characterise the people of the Donbass as “others” and “strangers”. This is supposed to legitimise exclusion and serve their own identity formation. The “inner orientalisation” of the Donbass does not do justice to the region’s socio-political plurality and dynamism. The irony is that even an author like Yury Andrukhovych represents this attitude, a man who has also made a name himself with his nostalgia for the lost cultural and ethnic diversity of Austria-Hungary. The debate in Ukraine touches a universal question: What makes a citizen a citizen? His belonging to the state or to an ethno-nation?
(Osteuropa 6-7/2016, pp. 171–184)