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Regionalism in Ukraine

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Regionalism in Ukraine has been a significant force during the building of an independent state after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.[1] While most acutely this issue manifested itself during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, other ethnic minorities in Ukraine sought for greater political or economical autonomy during 1990s. These movements, while not being secessionist, were perceived by central government as a threat to the unity of the state.[1]

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Dissolution of the Soviet Union

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the process of internal disintegration within the Soviet Union (USSR) which resulted in the end of the country's and its federal government's existence as a sovereign state, thereby resulting in its constituent republics gaining full independence on 26 December 1991. It brought an end to General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's effort to reform the Soviet political and economic system in an attempt to stop a period of political stalemate and economic backslide. The Soviet Union had experienced internal stagnation and ethnic separatism. Although highly centralized until its final years, the country was made up of 15 top-level republics that served as homelands for different ethnicities. By late 1991, amid a catastrophic political crisis, with several republics already departing the Union and the waning of centralized power, the leaders of three of its founding members declared that the Soviet Union no longer existed. Eight more republics joined their declaration shortly thereafter. Gorbachev resigned in December 1991 and what was left of the Soviet parliament voted to end itself.

2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine

2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine

From the end of February 2014, demonstrations by pro-Russian and anti-government groups took place in major cities across the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the success of Euromaidan in ousting then-President Viktor Yanukovych. The unrest, supported by Russia in the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War, has been referred to in Russia as the "Russian Spring".

Demographics of Ukraine

Demographics of Ukraine

The demographics of Ukraine relate to population growth, population density, ethnicity, education-level, health, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population of Ukraine.

Russian regionalism in Eastern/Southern Ukraine

Many observers noted that political division of Ukraine, as seen in voting patterns during the elections in Ukraine roughly matches the distribution of the Russophone population.
Many observers noted that political division of Ukraine, as seen in voting patterns during the elections in Ukraine roughly matches the distribution of the Russophone population.

Early attempts include suggestions of the Donetsk-Dnipro or Dnipro autonomous region.[1] In 1990, a proposal was put forth in Odessa for a "special state status" of the historical area of Novorossiya which would have been included five Ukrainian oblasts plus Moldovan Transnistria, which is now a breakaway territory.[1]

Of significant development was regionalism in Crimea, which was of varying political success since early 1990s[1] and had eventually led to the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

In early 2014, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology polling showed that 38.4% of the residents of Donetsk Oblast and 41.9% of the residents of Luhansk Oblast wanted to transform Ukraine into a federal state.[2] The comparable percentages were 32.2% in Kharkiv Oblast, 17.5% in Odessa Oblast, 15.3% in Zaporizhia Oblast, 11.4% in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, 10.7% in Mykolayiv Oblast, and 6.9% in Kherson Oblast.[2]

In 2019, polling showed that in the separatist-controlled Donbas, 58% of the residents wanted special autonomy (31% within Ukraine and 27% within Russia).[3] The same polling also showed that in the Ukrainian-controlled Donbas, 33% of the residents wanted special autonomy (31% within Ukraine and just 2% within Russia).[3] This polling also showed that 45% of the residents of the separatist-controlled Donbas prefer to live under Russian rule, in comparison to 55% who prefer to live under Ukrainian rule; meanwhile, in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Donbas, 96% of the residents want to live under Ukrainian rule and just 4% want to live under Russian rule.[3]

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Elections in Ukraine

Elections in Ukraine

Elections in Ukraine are held to choose the president, Verkhovna Rada (legislature), and local governments. Referendums may be held on special occasions. Ukraine has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which often not a single party has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.

Novorossiya

Novorossiya

Novorossiya, literally "New Russia", is a historical name, used during the era of the Russian Empire for an administrative area that would later become the southern mainland of Ukraine: the region immediately north of the Black Sea and Crimea. The province fell largely within a slightly wider area known in Ukrainian as the Stepovyna "Steppe Land", or Nyz "Lower Land". The name Novorossiya entered official usage in 1764, after the Russian Empire conquered the Crimean Khanate, and annexed its territories, when Novorossiya Governorate was founded. Official usage of the name ceased after 1917, when the entire area was incorporated in the Ukrainian People's Republic.

Moldova

Moldova

Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnistria lies across the Dniester river on the country's eastern border with Ukraine. Moldova's capital and largest city is Chișinău.

Crimea

Crimea

Crimea is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukraine. To the east, the Crimean Bridge, constructed in 2018, spans the Strait of Kerch, linking the peninsula with Krasnodar Krai in Russia. The Arabat Spit, located to the northeast, is a narrow strip of land that separates the Syvash lagoons from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to the west lies Romania and to the south is Turkey. The largest city is Sevastopol. The region has a population of 2.4 million, and has been under Russian occupation since 2014.

Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula, taking it from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War.

Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, or KIIS, is a Ukrainian organization conducting sociological research in the fields of social and socioeconomic research, marketing research, political research, health studies, and research consulting and auditing.

Opinion poll

Opinion poll

An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence intervals. A person who conducts polls is referred to as a pollster.

Donetsk Oblast

Donetsk Oblast

Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (Донеччина), is an oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its administrative centre is Donetsk, though due to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, the regional administration was moved to Kramatorsk. Historically, the region has been an important part of the Donbas region. From its creation in 1938 until November 1961, it bore the name Stalino Oblast as Donetsk was then named "Stalino", in honour of Joseph Stalin. As part of the de-Stalinization process, it was renamed after the Siversky Donets river, the main artery of Eastern Ukraine. Its population is estimated as 4,100,280

Luhansk Oblast

Luhansk Oblast

Luhansk Oblast, also referred to as Luhanshchyna (Луга́нщина), is the easternmost oblast (province) of Ukraine. The oblast's administrative center is Luhansk. The oblast was established in 1938 and bore the name Voroshilovgrad Oblast in honor of Kliment Voroshilov. Its population is estimated as 2,102,921

Kharkiv Oblast

Kharkiv Oblast

Kharkiv Oblast, also referred to as Kharkivshchyna, is an oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine. The oblast borders Russia to the north, Luhansk Oblast to the east, Donetsk Oblast to the south-east, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to the south-west, Poltava Oblast to the west and Sumy Oblast to the north-west. The area of the oblast is 31,400 km², corresponding to 5.2% of the total territory of Ukraine.

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, also referred to as Dnipropetrovshchyna, is an oblast (province) of southeastern Ukraine, the most important industrial region of the country. It was created on February 27, 1932. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast has a population of about 3,096,485, approximately 80% of whom live centering on administrative centers: Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Kamianske, Nikopol and Pavlohrad. The Dnieper River runs through the oblast.

Kherson Oblast

Kherson Oblast

Kherson Oblast, also known as Khersonshchyna, is an oblast (province) in southern Ukraine. It is located just north of Crimea. Its administrative center is Kherson, on the west bank of the Dnieper which bisects the oblast. The area of the region is 28,461 km2 and the population 1,001,598. It is considered the 'fruit basket' of the country, as much of its agricultural production is dispersed throughout the country, with production peaking during the summer months.

Regionalism in Western Ukraine

In the light of violent pro Russian events in the eastern part of Ukraine, Western Ukraine may be perceived as monolithic. Nevertheless, it has its own share of regionalism. Even before the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, there have been call for federalism in the historical Ukrainian region of Galicia. Galicia after the first partition of Poland (1772) was part of the Austrian Empire until its dissolution after World War I in 1918, and therefore its historical development was different from the parts of Ukraine which belonged to the Russian Empire. A representative of the Galician regionalism was Viacheslav Chornovil, one of the first leaders of the Rukh movement, who was instrumental in the convocation of the Galician Assembly.[1] While one of the important resolutions of the Assembly was "On the Unity of the Ukrainian Lands", Chornovil was severely criticized for "separatism" and eventually abandoned the idea.[4]

In Transcarpathia, the Congress of Carpathian Ruthenians led by Dimitry Sydor was for the autonomy of Subcarpathian Ruthenia within Ukraine. Sydor and some other Ruthenian activists were accused of being the tools of the Russian politics of destabilization of Ukraine.[5]

Ukrainian Hungarians in Transcarpathia suggested to transform the Berehove Raion into Hungarian national district. Other minorities (Ukrainian Romanians/Moldovans in Bukovina and Bessarabian Bulgarians and Gagauz in Odessa Oblast) also sought for local autonomy.[1]

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Declaration of Independence of Ukraine

Declaration of Independence of Ukraine

The Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine was adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR on 24 August 1991. The Act reestablished Ukraine's state independence.

Galicia (Eastern Europe)

Galicia (Eastern Europe)

Galicia is a historical and geographic region spanning what is now southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, long part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It covers much of the other historic regions of Red Ruthenia and Lesser Poland.

Austrian Empire

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a Central-Eastern European and multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, it was the third most populous monarchy in Europe after the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom. Along with Prussia, it was one of the two major powers of the German Confederation. Geographically, it was the third-largest empire in Europe after the Russian Empire and the First French Empire.

Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The rise of the Russian Empire coincided with the decline of neighbouring rival powers: the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Qajar Iran, the Ottoman Empire, and Qing China. It also held colonies in North America between 1799 and 1867. Covering an area of approximately 22,800,000 square kilometres (8,800,000 sq mi), it remains the third-largest empire in history, surpassed only by the British Empire and the Mongol Empire; it ruled over a population of 125.6 million people per the 1897 Russian census, the only census carried out during the entire imperial period. Owing to its geographic extent across three continents at its peak, it featured great ethnic, linguistic, religious, and economic diversity.

Galician Assembly

Galician Assembly

The Galician Assembly was the joint session of the regional oblast councils of Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk on February 16, 1991 in Ukraine. The assembly approved an agreement of cooperation between the three regional councils in political, economic, scientific, humanitarian and cultural spheres to counterbalance the political instability in the Soviet Union.

Dimitry Sydor

Dimitry Sydor

Dmytro Dmytrovych Sydor is a Rusyn archpriest of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Uzhhorod. The cathedral belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately 600,000 square kilometres (230,000 sq mi). Prior to the ongoing Russian invasion, it was the eighth-most populous country in Europe, with a population of around 41 million people. On 1 January 2023, the United Nations estimated the Ukrainian population to be 34.1 million, with record low birth rates. It is also bordered by Belarus to the north; by Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; and by Romania and Moldova to the southwest; with a coastline along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast. Kyiv is the nation's capital and largest city. Ukraine's state language is Ukrainian; Russian is also widely spoken, especially in the east and south.

Berehove Raion

Berehove Raion

Berehove Raion is a district (raion) in Zakarpattia Oblast (province) in the westernmost corner of Ukraine. The administrative center is Berehove. For many centuries the territory of the district was part of Bereg County. Population: 206,696

Moldovans

Moldovans

Moldovans, sometimes referred to as Moldavians, is a term used to describe the Romanian-speaking indigenous people of the Republic of Moldova and the largest self-declared ethnic group of the Republic of Moldova as well as a significant minority in Ukraine and Russia. There is an ongoing controversy, in part involving the linguisitic definition of ethnicity, over whether Moldovans' self-identification constitutes an ethnic group distinct and apart from Romanians, or a subset.

Bukovina

Bukovina

Bukovina is a historical region, variously described as part of either Central or Eastern Europe. The region is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided between Romania and Ukraine.

Bessarabian Bulgarians

Bessarabian Bulgarians

The Bessarabian Bulgarians are a Bulgarian minority group of the historical region of Bessarabia, inhabiting parts of present-day Ukraine and Moldova.

Gagauz people

Gagauz people

The Gagauz are a Turkic ethnic group native to southern Moldova and southwestern Ukraine (Budjak). Gagauz are mostly Eastern Orthodox Christians. The term Gagauz is also often used as a collective naming of Turkic people living in the Balkans, speaking Gagauz language, a language separated from Balkan Gagauz Turkish.

Source: "Regionalism in Ukraine", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, December 21st), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regionalism_in_Ukraine.

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References
  1. ^ a b c d e f g J. Paul Goode, The Decline of Regionalism in Putin's Russia: Boundary Issues, 2001, ISBN 1136720731, pp. 139-141
  2. ^ a b "Press releases and reports - the views and opinions of South-Eastern regions residents of Ukraine: April 2014".
  3. ^ a b c "Most people in separatist-held areas of Donbas prefer reintegration with Ukraine – new survey".
  4. ^ О. В. АНДРОЩУК, "В. ЧОРНОВІЛ ТА ІДЕЯ ФЕДЕРАЛІЗАЦІЇ УКРАЇНИ: ЕВОЛЮЦІЯ ПОГЛЯДІВ" ("V. Chornovil and the Idea of the Federalization of Ukraine: Evolution of the Views"), Український історичний журнал, no. 1, 2010, pp. 22-34
  5. ^ Україна в лещатах російських спецслужб, Radio Liberty, 08 грудня 2014

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