Ukraine as a Postcolonial State?
Ukraine as a Postcolonial State?

Summary/Abstract: Colonialism has been traditionally defined as West European powers’ rule over overseas territories inhabited by other racial groups. “What is the distinctive feature of colonial expansion, seen as a quality of the Western civilization? In a nutshell, it is the striving to turn advantage, control and ascendancy over other societies into domination and imposition of supreme authority. A colony is a territory subordinated politically and economically, lying outside the colonizers’ own state and their own civilization.”1 Coming as an important part of such understanding of colonialism is the belief that its specific traits manifested themselves most fully towards the close of the “imperialist” stage of 19th-century capitalism.2 That definition needs to be broadened. Colonialism should be described as a protracted rule over another racial/ethnic group, coupled with a policy of economic exploitation and forced acculturation. So understood, the notion of colonialism can be applied to Antiquity (Rome), white settlers’ colonies (Australia, Canada), or the expansion of some non-European powers (Japan). It also embraces internal colonization, i.e. the policy pursued towards smaller discriminated peoples in a given state. A classic example here is offered by Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which, although finding themselves in a different situation than other possessions of the British Crown (now and, to some extent, also in the past), have in many respects resembled the traditional colonies.

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