Nadiia (Nadia) Honcharenko
Institute for Cultural Research of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Kyiv.
ORCID ID 0000-0003-2588-0991
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37627/2311-9489-28-2025-2.190-198
Keywords: postcolonial approach, historical narrative, decommunication, decolonization, national identity, multidimensional perspective.
Abstract.
The collective work Living the Independence Dream: Ukraine and Ukrainians in Contemporary Socio-Political Context is analyzed through a postcolonial approach, emphasizing the need for monographs that represent Ukrainians in the world not through the mediation of established clichés and stereotypes created in the 19th –21st centuries, but through the disclosure of their own experiences in their own language..
The review emphasizes that the monograph includes works by Ukrainian and foreign scholars who, based on written and visual sources, historical and literary narratives, views and values prevalent in society and formed in different eras, show the peculiarities of Ukrainian society, in particular, the differences between Ukrainians and Russians, refuting the claims of “brotherly peoples” or “one people” used by Russia in its war against Ukraine. Therefore, this book is an important element in deepening and broadening the understanding of Ukraine in general and its anti-colonial struggle in particular. This is an opportunity to look at Ukraine and Ukrainians not through muddy Russian glasses, but with a decolonizing lens.
Author‘s biography.
Nadiia (Nadia) Honcharenko, senior researcher of the Department of cultural heritage research & preservation, Institute for Cultural Research of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Kyiv.
References:
Hendl, Tereza, Burlyuk, Olga, O’Sullivan, Mila & Arystanbek, Aizada. (2023). (En)Countering epistemic imperialism: A critique of “Westsplaining” and coloniality in dominant debates on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Contemporary Security Policy, 45(2), pp. 171–209. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2023.2288468
Horbyk, Roman, Prymachenko, Yana, & Orlova, Dariya. (2023). The transformation of propaganda: The continuities and discontinuities of information operations, from Soviet to Russian active measures. Nordic Journal of Media Studies, 5(1), pp. 68–94. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2023-0005
Mälksoo, Maria. (2022). The Postcolonial Moment in Russia’s War Against Ukraine. Journal of Genocide Research, 25(3–4), pp. 471–481. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2022.2074947
Seth G. Jones. (No date). Russia’s Shadow War Against the West. Center for Strategic and International Studies: Russia’s Shadow War Against the West.
Tyushka, Andriy. (2023). “In ‘Crisis’ We Trust? On (Un)Intentional Knowledge Distortion and the Exigency of Terminological Clarity in Academic and Political Discourses on Russia’s War against Ukraine.” Journal of International Relations and Development, 26, pp. 643–659. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-023-00313-2
The article was received by the editorial office on 08.12.2025.
The article was accepted for publication after review on 10.12.2025.
The article was published on 31.12.2025.
Section: .