At the turn of the twentieth century, a small and seemingly insignificant border region on the western periphery of the Russian Empire came to occupy a prominent place in public discourse. The Polish city of Chełm, declared by Russian nationalists as “Russian and Orthodox since the dawn of history,” became Kholm. Yet, this was not merely a city to be taken from the Poles; in rural areas lived also the Uniates – Ruthenians peasants of the Greek Catholic faith in communion with Rome, against whom the tsars would pursue a nationalist policy marked by rare concessions and bloody repressions. The Polish nationalists, in turn, asserted claims on Uniates’ Polishness. Ukrainian nationalists wedged themselves between these two contenders, aiming to emancipate the Ruthenians from both the Poles and Russians while creating citizens of 20th-century Ukraine.
University of Varsavia - ORCID: 0000-0002-9147-4185
Book Title
Nazionalismi di frontiera
Book Subtitle
Russi, polacchi e ucraini a Cholm (1830-1918)
Authors
Matteo Piccin
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
530
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0800-0
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0799-7
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0800-0
Series Title
Strumenti per la didattica e la ricerca
Series ISSN
2704-6249
Series E-ISSN
2704-5870