WESTERN UKRAINIAN REGION AS A BORDERLAND OF «LOCALS» AND «STRANGERS»: INTERACTION OF DILEMMA

Abstract

The article
examines the phenomenon of the Western
Ukrainian region as a borderland for ethnic
cultures, identities and communities. The
thesis is based on the fact that ethnic and social
groups differed not only at the horizontal
level in the Western Ukrainian region,
but also in various forms of social differentiation
- ethnic, political, professional and
other differences, which did not coincide,
but were relatively independent and gave
rise to so-called «various heterogeneity».
The research has shown that since ethnic
leaders of different and equally static ethnic
communities were «parents» and «children»
of ethnic origins and different identities,
then, of course, they constantly refl ected on
issues of their ethnicity, national mythology,
history, traditions and customs, common
mentality and life challenges.
On the other hand, the problem of the
impact of multiculturalism within a single
space of several typologically distinct cultures
that interconnected in a complex relationship
on the borders of modern Ukraine
is among the least studied. The more we
know about the Western Ukrainian region
as a frontier of ethnic groups and cultures,
the more and more there appears analytical
intelligence, journalistic articles and refl ections
with a claim to historicity and scholarship,
then the obvious are the mistakes of
unjustifi ed assumptions, ambitious discoveries,
despicable judgments and mystifi cations,
since they all differ signifi cantly from
historical and political circumstances, and
even more so from the system of interethnic
being, ethnic representations, and criteria
of identity of the people of the frontier.