“There cannot be a free body when the soul is in captivity”: religion and national identity in three Ukrainian presidents’ rhetoric, 2010-2022
Date
2023
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Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
The ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has sparked a global interest in Ukraine. Whilst there is extensive scholarship on the relationship between religion, politics and national identity in Ukraine, there is a lack of synthesised, comparative and process-tracing work on how an incumbent’s religious politics is influenced by their predecessor(s) or how they may influence their successor(s). This thesis examines how three Ukrainian presidents – Viktor Yanukovych, Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelenskyy – have used religious ideas and rhetoric as part of their political agendas and to support their ideas of Ukrainian national identity.
This thesis uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to analyse presidential speeches, through which a process is traced mapping the development of religious politics in Ukraine across the three presidencies. Using this method, the thesis argues that religion in Ukraine is intertwined with nationalism and that the influence of religion on politics and national identity is itself influenced by other factors, i.e. geopolitical developments. The use of religious rhetoric by the current president, Zelenskyy, demonstrates the continuing influence of religion in Ukrainian politics, from which avenues for further research can be proposed.