Gregory B. Moynahan
Associate Professor of History at Bard Collеge, USA. Author of the book Ernst Cassirer and the Critical Science of Germany, 1899-1919 (2013, Anthem Press/London). Prof. Moynahan’s research interests include history of the social sciences, systems theory, and computing/cybernetics in the two Germanys.
Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has prompted many to reconsider Ukraine’s relationship to the question of what it means to “decolonize.” This present-day revaluation of Ukraine’s complex imperial inheritances has centered primarily on Ukraine’s historical relationship to the Russian Empire (and the Russocentric Soviet Union), often to the exclusion of Ukraine’s Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and other imperial inheritances. This tragic moment of reflection raises a number of bedeviling questions. How do we narrate a decolonial history of Ukraine? Is it possible, or desirable, to disentangle Ukrainian culture from empires of the past and present? Can we imagine a future political and economic order for Ukraine that is not wholly dependent upon more powerful...