This article investigates religious nationalism in the Russian–Ukrainian conflict, which has appeared in political and popular rhetoric and has been expressed through violence. From the Tsarist era, Kyiv and Crimea have featured centrally in Russian national mythology as the cradle(s) of Russian Christianity. This nationalist conception of space persisted after political borders changed with the collapse of the Soviet Union, as has the Russian Orthodox Church's historic jurisdiction in Ukraine. As a result, Russian Orthodox believers retain a special affinity for Kyiv and Crimea, and many Ukrainian citizens have looked to Moscow for matters of faith. Subjects of inquiry include religious nationalism, the baptism of Slavic Prince Vladimir (Volodymyr), Orthodox holy places in Crimea and Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill's Russian World concept, and religious violence in Ukraine and Crimea.
research article
Religion and the crisis in Ukraine
Mara Kozelsky is Associate Professor of History at the University of South Alabama and is the author of Christianizing Crimea: Shaping Sacred Space in the Russian Empire and Beyond (Northern Illinois University Press, 2010). Additionally, she has published numerous articles, and has co-edited two volumes: with Philip P. Kohl and Nachmen ben Yahuda, Selected Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and Consecration of National Pasts (University of Chicago Press, 2008); and with Lucien Frary, Russian Ottoman Borderlands: the Eastern Question Reconsidered (University of Wisconsin Press, 2014). Currently, she is working on a book about the Crimean War, tentatively titled War and Recovery.
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International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church
Volume 14 2014 - Issue 3
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