Borders in Revolution: The 1917 Struggle Over the Russian-Ukrainian Divide

A lecture by Hanna Perekhoda, graduate assistant, Institute of Political Studies, University of Lausanne.

Moderated by Emily Channell-Justice, Director, Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program.

IN-PERSON. A casual lunch will be provided.

About the Lecture

Russia's war against Ukraine and the extreme forms of historical manipulation that accompany it create a context in which attempts to critically deconstruct national narratives become considerably more difficult. However, it is evident that both Russian and Ukrainian dominant historiographies tend to obscure the complex, non-linear processes through which these two states began—and continue—to constitute themselves as distinct socio-historical entities. As Pierre Bourdieu once noted, to understand present borders, one must first comprehend the past struggles between those who had a stake in how those borders were defined. Hanna Perekhoda’s research addresses precisely this challenge, shedding light on the hegemonic struggles over the meaning of "Ukraine" and the definition of its border with Russia in the context of the 1917 revolution. By focusing on the aborted state project of the Donets Soviet Republic, this study provides a vantage point for understanding the specificity of this historical moment. It calls for analyzing the period of 1917-1920s as one of global and radical redefinition of all borders, both physical and symbolic. This lecture aims to contribute to the development of a new scholarly agenda, one that captures the relational, hybrid, and dynamic nature of the empire’s social reality, as well as the fundamentally open, non-deterministic character of revolutionary transformations.

About the Speaker

Hanna Perekhoda is a historian from Donetsk, Ukraine, and a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Political Studies at the University of Lausanne. Her doctoral research focuses on the 1917 revolution in Ukraine, examining how local Bolsheviks navigated the tension between their substantialist modern social imaginary and the complexities of a revolution unfolding in an imperial context. Hanna's articles on Russian-Ukrainian relations have appeared in various outlets, including OpenDemocracy, New Politics, Jacobin, Le Courrier d'Europe Centrale, Politis, European Alternatives Journal, and Widerspruch. 

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This event is organized by Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) as part of the Ukraine Study Group and Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program.

Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Hanna Leliv, HURI Events Logistics Coordinator, at hleliv@fas.harvard.edu at least two weeks in advance of the session.

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