num_pages: 344
description: From the Soviet perspective Eastern Europe was the near abroad  more accessible than the capitalist West yet also unambiguously foreign. Observing their western neighbours citizens of the USSR developed new ideas about the role of states borders and national identities in the Soviet empire. In The Near Abroad  Zbigniew Wojnowski traces how Soviet Ukrainian identities developed in dialogue and confrontation with the USSRs neighbours in Eastern Europe. The author aptly challenges the dominant chronologies of late Soviet history by arguing that patriotism framed heated debates about the future of the Soviet state even amongst the rising tide of cynicism and disengagement from public life. Wojnowskis insightful analysis illuminates the mental geographies that continue to shape relations and conflicts between Russia Ukraine and Eastern Europe to this very day. Unlike most other histories of Ukraine The Near Abroad does not reduce Ukrainian nationalism to anti-Soviet views and behaviours.
language: English
title: The Near Abroad: Socialist Eastern Europe and Soviet Patriotism in Ukraine, 1956-1985
publisher: University of Toronto Press