This book, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2025, proposes a new notion of “ambicoloniality” to speak about the current situation, when Ukraine has become Russia’s territory of obsession, and Russia, in its desire to occupy Ukraine, has in effect subjected itself to Ukraine’s symbolic dominance. Ambicoloniality presents a key point of divergence from already existing models. The mutual impact of the two countries over centuries has gone both ways, over a shared border – in contrast to many other empires that established their colonial power relations at a distance. The Ukrainian-Russian case is different from the examples covered by both postcolonial and decolonial theorists. To explore the reasons and consequences of such differing processes of colonial expansion, anti-colonial struggle, and decolonial release, the book inquires into the historical and cultural reasons for the emerging gap between the two states. It examines the role that cultural hybridity plays in political self-identification in both Ukraine and Russia, and how this hybridity has manifested in society and culture (including examples of art and literature) following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The book’s page on the Springer Nature website: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-74077-0
“Ambicoloniality and War: The Ukrainian–Russian Case” has been presented extensively in Europe and the U.S., with a series of in-person presentations.
Recording of the book presentation at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 16 October 2025, moderated by Klara Kemp-Welch:
Recording of the book presentation at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University, 23 September 2025, moderated by Emily Channel-Justice and Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed.
Endorsements of the book:
Svitlana Biedarieva 