Taras Tsymbal

Ukraine’s resolute distancing from Russia came as a surprise to many audiences in the world. In the lack of its intellectually satisfying explanation, conspiracy theories temptingly attributed the sources of change to external actors, overlooking Ukraine’s internal development. By exploring post-WWII demographic shifts in population distribution across regions, sectors of economy, and temporalities of experience, this project looks into the deep social structures of Ukraine itself to explain how it emerged in its distinctiveness from Russia and Belarus.