This volume brings together 15 articles divided into four sections on theoretical and
comparative studies the role of nationalism in transitions to democracy the application of
theory to case studies and the role played by history and myths in the forging of national
identities and nationalisms. The book develops new theories and frameworks through engaging
with leading scholars of nationalism: Hans Kohn's propositions are discussed in relation to an
applicability of the term 'civic' (with no ethno-cultural connotations) to liberal democracies
Rogers Brubaker over the usefulness of dividing European states into 'civic' and
'nationalising' states when the former have historically been 'nationalisers' Will Kymlicka on
the applicability of multiculturalism to post-communist states and Paul Robert Magocsi on the
lack of surveys and census data to support claims of revivals by national minorities in
Ukraine. The book also engages with 'transitology' over the usefulness of comparative studies
of transitions in regions that underwent only political reforms and those that had 'quadruple
transitions' implying simultaneous democratic and market reforms as well as state and nation
building. A comparative study of Serbian and Russian diasporas focuses on why ethnic Serbs and
Russians living outside Serbia and Russia reacted differently to the disintegration of
Yugoslavia and the USSR. The book takes to task experts of Russian and Soviet history who
continue to utilize imperial frameworks of history analyzes the re-writing of Ukrainian
history within post-colonial theories and discusses the forging of Ukraine's identity within
theories of 'Others' as central to the shaping of identities. Finally it offers a new
framework of study of Ukrainian ethnic relations designed to be an alternative to the continued
use of 'nationalism' in a Soviet manner in which nationalism in Ukraine is solely defined as a
West Ukrainian phenomenon.
