The article tackles the specific context of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war: its potential connection with the rivalry for the legacy of Kyivan Rus. The predominant thesis in this paper is that this conflict has also revealed significant aporias in contemporary Russian national identity. Through the metaphorical establishing of Russianness on the Kyiv foundation, and in the absence of a working alternative, the Russian idea found itself trapped: unable to exist without Ukraine, it may cease to exist at all, or may have to transform into a completely new form. The background for the thoughts presented comprises a general historical outline concerning, above all, the period after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Analytically, the paper refers to several selected texts and comments by important Russian ideologues, from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Aleksandr Dugin to Vladimir Putin.
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
