Viktor Brekhunenko

This project provides a study of the intellectual roots of the concept of “New Russia (Novorossiya)” as one of the central underpinnings of contemporary Russian interpretations of Ukrainian history. The main result will be a holistic research of the functioning of this concept in intellectual discourses, as well as in political strategies from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The project discusses the following main issues: the creation of the “New Russia (Novorossiya)” concept; its evolution in scholarly and ideological practices of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and Putin’s Russia; the strategies and mechanisms for implementing the concept in the elite’s worldview and the historical memory of the general populace; the international resonance of Russian approaches and its correlation with the intellectual discourses in Ukraine; and the specifity of the concept’s use by contemporary Russian elites for actively imposing it world-wide in the intellectual milieu.