The proposed project is focused on the role of cultural exchange as a driving force of “modernisation” of Ukrainian literature and literary theory in the 1920s – and to its political dimension and outcome. Ukraine’s history of 1920s is one of the best examples of the co-existence and development of nationalism and communism. The aim of the proposed research is to demonstrate how the project of radical “modernization” of Ukrainian literature and theory was used for the construction of the new national identity in the 1920s.
My project will deepen our understanding of political, cultural and intellectual history of Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s. Also, it will demonstrate how the crucial tendencies of the 20th century global history – colonialism, troubled relationships between nationalism and communism, a balance of power and influence between metropolis and colonies – manifested themselves in Ukraine. This is of prime academic importance because of the decades of Soviet falsification of Ukrainian history and of the recent attempts to interpret this period from the nationalist perspective.