Struggling over ethno-national boundaries through contested history: the case of Ukraine from a patronal perspective

The research reflects on state consolidation in divided societies in terms of ethnic boundary-making and expands on the framework of patronal politics in the former Soviet Union to analyse political competition over contested historical policy in contemporary Ukraine. The empirical investigation zooms on episodes of power redistribution that prompt the opening of verticalized structures of power and on the mobilisation of divisive narratives: a primary concern is with the growing leverage of historical markers of national identification, with the legitimacy and meaning nationalist interpretations of history acquire during the Maidan Revolution, and with ideological underpinnings’ and power relations’ impact on the opportunity of imposing and renegotiating unpopular provisions included in the Decommunization Package