183 Borders on the Move: From the Soviet Union into Eurasia?

Thursday, July 9, 2015: 2:00 PM-3:45 PM
J101 (13 rue de l'Université)
 

The events in Ukraine and Russia since November 2013, and the subsequent incorporation of Crimea to the Russian state in March 2014, with the support of the majority of inhabitants of the Peninsula, demonstrate that the desire to belong to the Western part of the European continent is not necessarily always the case. In some instances, people do prefer to belong to the Eastern part of Europe. This development in Crimea was proof that the reason for the desire to be a part of either Western or Eastern Europe always lies in the knowledge and experience one has already gained. Most of the inhabitants of Crimea hadn’t had the opportunity to experience the European Union personally; they only knew Eastern Europe, primarily Russia. This experience resulted in a sense of confidence in Russia, and distrust regarding the European Union. In the panel the shifting of borders from East into West and vice versa will be analysed using the examples of Russia and Ukraine. The goal is to show that borders are never a stable phenomenon, but they can change very quickly, and so the national belonging of a region can shift, too.

Organizer:
Katarzyna Stoklosa
Chair:
Ganna Gerasymenko
Discussant :
Gerhard Besier
Poland's Changing Borders
Agnieszka Smelkowska, University of California at Berkeley
Expanding Religious Borders? the New Influence of Some Old State Churches
Gerhard Besier, Sigmund Neumann Institute for the Research on Freedom, Liberty and Democracy
Ukraine and Russia in Crisis
Katarzyna Stoklosa, University of Southern Denmark
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