Olexander Hryb

Nationalism, national identity, and ethnicity are complex social phenomena worldwide and especially so in post-Soviet Ukraine. This monograph explores the causes and conditions of post-communist nationalist revivals focusing on the re-emergence of Cossack movements in Russia and Ukraine since the late 1980s. The study explores how different theories of nationalist movements underpinned different national policies and, ultimately, different socially constructed realities that led to the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Dr. Olexander Hryb is a London based writer with over 20 years of experience in research, analysis, media, and PR. He studied history, politics, and the sociology of culture in Lviv, Prague, and Warsaw. Olexander worked as a broadcaster and online journalist for the BBC World Service, Polish Radio (Overseas Service) and as analyst for DCD Intelligence. He is currently an associated member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology as well as a Cultural Adviser in the British Army. His articles have appeared in the Ukrainian Review (London), Border and Territorial Disputes of the World series (John Harper), and British Army Review.

"The Cossacks are back, both on the pages of academic monographs and the battlefields of the new East European wars. They wear traditional garbs but carry modern weapons and advance new ideologies. As is persuasively argued by Olexander Hryb, nationalism explains their return on the political and cultural stage more than anything else. It is impossible to understand the rise of modern Russian and Ukrainian national identity without examining the unexpected revival of the Cossacks. This book offers invaluable insight into both."—Serhii Plokhy, Harvard University

"The book thus provides a solid foundation for two future lines of inquiry: First, into the missing years of the 2000s (when the movement really became co-opted by the Russian state—today, Cossacks patrol the streets of numerous Russian cities, not just in the country’s south); and, second, into the nature of the numerous Cossack movements in Russia and Ukraine and their involvement in the Donbass conflict in the current day. It is certainly a book to which I will return, and an excellent contribution in its own right."—Richard Arnold, The Russian Review, Vol. 80, No. 1