Abstract:
Edward Said’s description of Western imperialist imagining of Orientalism is applicable to the
manner in which Russian nationalism and national identity and the work of pro-(Vladimir) Putin
apologists, realists and some Russianists imagine Ukraine. The Orient and Ukraine are treated
as passive subaltern subjects of the world order who are denied the dignity of choosing their
own destiny. The imaging of the colonies and Russia’s Near Abroad was a relationship between
power, domination and hegemony that benefitted the lives of those who were ruled, a
relationship of the strong over the weak best served by a great power awarded a sphere of
influence to maintain order over subaltern people incapable of ruling themselves. Ukraine was
depicted in Polish and Russian literature as terra incognita, an empty land where chaos reigned
and requiring the imposition of order by more ‘civilised’ historic peoples. Western imperialists
described their colonial adventures as bringing “civilisation” to “backward peoples” who had no
ability to rule themselves. The colonies are “a subject race, dominated by a race that knows
them and what is good for them better than they could possibly know themselves.”
Colonial rule was justified in the name of progress by a more “civilised” people.
