Exam questions 2010/11

1. 'Nations do not make states and nationalisms but the other way round' (Hobsbawm). Discuss.

2. 'Ethnic boundaries are more important for nation building than cultural content'. Discuss.

3. What divides Russian Slavophiles and Westerners?

4. 'Poland is the Christ among nations' (Mickiewicz). Discuss.

5. How did Ukrainian national activists try to convince the Ukrainian-speaking peasantry in the Russian and Austrian Empire that they were members of a single Ukrainian nation?

6. How do the Ukrainian, Polish and Russian perceptions of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky differ from each other?

7. What role did the Great War and the Russian Revolution play in EITHER Russian OR Polish OR Ukrainian nation building?

8. Compare the functions and content of the celebrations of the anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald in 1910 and 1960.

9. Why is the Second World War such a contested topic in Ukraine?

10. What role did Stalin play in Russian nation building?

Exam questions 2006/07

1. How far can nations be seen as a product of modernity?

2. Is the Kievan Rus more a part of Ukrainian or of Russian history?

3. What were the functions of literary societies and reading clubs in nineteenth-century Eastern Europe?

4. What role did the Battle of Grunwald/Tannenberg in 1410 play in Polish nation-building before the Great War?

5. 'Russian nationalism threatened the stability of the Russian Empire'. Discuss.

6. 'Nations are forged in wars.' Discuss.

7. Compare the Soviet and Polish nationality policies towards Ukrainians in the interwar period.

8. Discuss the role of the Second World War in EITHER Soviet/Russian OR Polish memorial culture?

9.Why did Jan Gross' book Neihbours cause such an uproar in Poland?

10. Which historic memories unite and which divide the Ukraine today?

Exam questions 2005/6 (before vetting)

1. 'Nations are the invention of nationalists.' Discuss.
2. ‘Forgetting is as important for a nation as remembering.’ (Ernest Renan) Discuss.
3. What role did commemorations play in Polish nation building before the First World War?
4. Discuss the role of historians in nation building in EITHER Russia, OR Ukraine OR Poland.
5. Discuss the national options available to Greek-Catholic, Ukrainian speaking peasants in East Galicia before 1914.
6. How did the Bolshevik leadership try to solve the question of nationality within the former Russian Empire?
7. Discuss the importance of the war experience for EITHER Ukrainian OR Polish nation building after 1920.
8. Is shared suffering or are shared victories more important for nations?
9. To what extent did the Second World War become the 'second founding myth' of the Soviet Union?
10. ‘The conflicting memories of the Second World War represent a danger for contemporary Ukraine.’ Discuss.