The Russian-Ukrainian Conflict: A Clash of Civilizations?

Please join the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University for a presentation by Professor Frank E. Sysyn (University of Alberta, CIUS).

The current Russian-Ukrainian conflict has brought to the fore a number of unresolved issues that have simmered throughout the twentieth century. On the one side is the Russian question that includes elements of imperial traditions, Eurasianism, Orthodoxy, and all-Russian identity. On the other is the Ukrainian question that involves elements of Ukrainian national distinctiveness, religious pluralism, state-building, and Ukraine’s place in Europe. Throughout the twentieth century Russian thinkers from Nikolai Trubetzkoy to Alexander Solzhenitsyn found the Ukrainian national movement a challenge to their concepts of Russian identity. The Maidan, the seizure of the Crimea, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict have brought unresolved issues to a head. The talk will deal with the roots of the current clash and its present state, with special attention to the role of religious thought and institutions.

From the Harriman Institute.