Decolonizing Ukraine

Greta Lynn Uehling is teaching professor of international and comparative studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Beyond Memory: The Deportation and Repatriation of the Crimean Tatars (2004) and Everyday War: The Conflict over Donbas, Ukraine (2023).

I cried, smiled with gratitude, and grieved alongside this book. As a Ukrainian from Crimea, reading it felt like reclaiming a lost piece of myself. The memories I had "forgotten" were gently unraveled in a delicate process of remembrance and mutual recognition. Each page offered me the missing fragments of my past and present, presented with such tenderness that they seamlessly wove back into the tapestry of my life.

• ContentsList of IllustrationsList of AbbreviationsNote on Translation and TransliterationPrefaceIntroductionThe Alchemy of AdversityA Settler Colonial ProjectThe Book’s Organizational LogicRecognitionCognitive DeoccupationChapter Overview I. Part One: Historical Grounding1. CrimeaCrimea in a WordThe Logic of Russia’s OccupationDiscrediting, displacing, and dispossessing Crimean Tatars Crimea is UkraineRethinking Regional HistoryThe Hybrid Operation to Capture Crimea The Unlawful ReferendumPassportizationSummary2. Why Indigeneity Matters for UkraineThe Basis of Indigenous Status in International LawIndigenous Rights are Human RightsIndigenous Rights are More Capacious than Minority RightsThe Case Against Indigenous StatusIndigenous GovernanceWhen Elephants Fight: Indigeneity in RussiaThe Other Elephant: Indigeneity in Ukraine What Crimean Tatars Mean for UkraineSummaryII. Part Two: Unraveling3. Displaced in Time and Space by the 2014 Occupation of CrimeaDisplacement in Time and SpaceA Return to the USSRDreams and Nightmares“Like an Excursion to an Asylum”“Like in a science fiction film”Inverting Moral HierarchiesSummary4. Unraveling: Talk of Treason Divides Crimean SocietyEveryday WarAccusations of Treason in Crimea: A Brief HistoryPolitical and Personal Romantic Partner RelationshipsVoting in the ReferendumParents and ChildrenFriendshipPortraits of StalinTreason at ScaleSummaryIII. Part Three: Coalescing5. Making Crimean Tatars More Grievable: Mourning and Recognition through the 2016 Eurovision ContestMeeting JamalaThe Politics of Pity and RecognitionThe Song “1944:” What it Mourns“Where’s Your Heart?” An Apolitical Project More Grievable Meant More LivableThe Contrast between Grief and Pity: Grief Builds CommunityRaising AwarenessNow We Cannot Be ForgottenThe Album “Qirim”Summary6. Claiming FreedomOppression during the Soviet PeriodClaiming Themselves“I decided to change my life”“You can say anything you want”Civic Identity: “Head and Heart”The National ContextThe Cultivation of FreedomNew Narratives Gradations of FreedomSummaryIV. Part Four: Reclaiming7. Barricading Crimea: Reclaiming Power, Territory, and History Arriving at the BarricadeThe Work of the BarricadeThe Women’s DormitoryOf Courage and ColonialityThe Imbalances are StructuralMahatma Gandhi, Che Guevara, and the Political Subjectivity at the BarricadeThe DreamA Crimean Tatar Epistemology of HistoryNot Everyone Agreed with Non-State Armed ActivismAfter the Full Scale Invasion of UkraineSummary8. Behind the Lines: Life in Occupied CrimeaThe Pragmatic Value of FearDulled SensationsStaying in CrimeaThe Graves of Our AncestorsDebt to Living Elders and the LandPolitically Motivated ImprisonmentsMilitary Conscription A Principled EscapeSummaryV. Part Five: Critical Reflections9. The Limits of Responsibility and RecognitionResponsibility without BlameMutual RecognitionSlavic IDPsRecognition and RedistributionLayers of MisrecognitionSummary10. Final Chapter: By Way of Conclusion The Phenomenological Experience of Occupation and DisplacementThe Logic of ExpropriationMore than Human: Healing Damaged EcosystemsSummaryAppendix A: List of IntervieweesAppendix B: Research Methodology