Europe as Argument, Value, and Promise? Western European Perspectives on the History of Ukraine in History Curricula and Textbooks

Abstract

This article takes a comparative perspective on the question of how the history of Ukraine is represented in recent history textbooks of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK in a categorical relation to Europe. It analyzes which themes, concepts, and narratives of European history are formative for the representations of Ukraine and how the representations have changed since the 1990s. The article asks to what extent Europe is articulated as a historical-political argument, which values characterized as European are invoked, and to what extent Europe has ultimately become a genuine promise for Ukraine. It focuses on the following questions: What significance is ascribed to Ukraine’s European past? With what specific values is such a European past of Ukraine associated, and to what extent does the reference to Europe function as a discursive resource? Which topics are associated with which value attributions, and which epochs are focused on? Finally, which spatial patterns and temporal narratives are used overall for the “European-ness” of Ukraine?