Maciek Wisniewski / II: Ukraine: recolonization

Just like last time (bit.ly/3LbrT2J), first of all two theses: 1) Ukraine, being historically colonized by Poland and Russia − the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the First and Second Rzeczpospolita on the one hand, and the Empire of the tsars and the USSR on the other − has always been an entity relegated to the status of “the border zone” and “the margins” (in Polish, Russian and Ukrainian itself “Ukraine” literally means this), rather than a a cultural and political entity with its own formation and agency (something that certain parts of the left also proclaimed); 2) given this history and the nature of the colonial expansion of both powers −of an eliminationist and settlement nature (settler colonialism) aimed at erasing the historical-cultural and physical presence of the colonized population that also put up a strong resistance−, there are parallels direct with the history of the global South and Western colonialism (Congo, Algeria, Palestine, etc.).

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