European Histories of Ukraine and the Valorization of the Past

Issue 1/2026, vol. 75, of the Journal of East Central European Studies has just been published. Edited by Gregor Feindt and Joachim Berger, it deals with the topic “European Histories of Ukraine and the Valorization of the Past.” 

The introduction states the following: “The question of whether Ukraine belongs to Europe is closely tied to the value attributed to a common European past and the values guiding the social actions of ‘the’ Europeans, including the Ukrainians, in the past and present. As the articles in this special issue make clear, for the actors under examination, Europe is constituted not only through cultural transfer, extreme experiences of violence, or programmatic conventions, such as internationally agreed standards in education, but also through shared, positively understood values such as freedom, sovereignty, democracy, and the rule of law. These values are, on the one hand, marked as ‘European’ and, on the other hand, claimed as having universal validity.”

Please find here [https://www.zfo-online.de/portal/zfo/issue/view/316] all articles and reviews. The issue includes, along with book reviews, the following articles:

Joachim Berger: Ukraine before Statehood: A Blind Spot in Western European Historiography of/on Europe since 1991? (15-38), https://doi.org/10.25627/202675111782

Mariia Kovalchuk: From Inequalities to Partnership: Analyzing a New Paradigm of Europe-Ukraine Relations in Ukrainian History School Textbooks, 2001–2024 (39-63), https://doi.org/10.25627/202675111783

Steffen Sammler, Marcus Otto: Europe as Argument, Value, and Promise? Western European Perspectives on the History of Ukraine in History Curricula and Textbooks (65-83), https://doi.org/10.25627/202675111784

Stefan Albrecht: From Gold in the Scythian Steppe to Scandinavian Influence in Kyiv: Ukraine’s Relationship with Europe in the Past Thirty Years, Portrayed in International Exhibitions (85-121), https://doi.org/10.25627/202675111785

Gregor Feindt: An Unknown Land? The Making of a European History of Ukraine in German, British, and Polish Print Media after 24 February 2022 (123-150), https://doi.org/10.25627/202675111786

Please visit our full text archive of Zeitschrift für Ostforschung 1952–1994 (https://www.zfo-online.de/index.php/zf/issue/archive) and Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung / Journal of East Central European Studies since 1995 (https://www.zfo-online.de/index.php/zfo/issue/archive).