Minorities in Ukrainian science

Abstract

Abstract. After becoming independent, Ukraine inherited the territory of the Ukrai nian Soviet Socialist Republic upon the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.1 The Ukrainian nation, which managed to achieve the status of a real state only by the end of the 20th century, has undergone diff erent stages of national development to a greater extent than the majority of European nation states. Th e situations of ethnic Ukrainians living outside of today’s Ukraine and the ways they are seen within their given countries are also diff erent from the situations of ethnic Hungarian communities living abroad. From a Hungarian point of view, the critical issue is the situation of the ethnic Hungarian minorities that found themselves in a foreign country after the borders had been moved by force, while from a Ukrainian perspective, the only positive legacy of the Soviet era was that a region larger than what had ever been anticipated came under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic by drawing the new borders. Ukrainian science defi nes minority groups on the basis of ethnic affi liation as minorities within the country, but outside the national borders, they are seen as part of the diaspora, irrespective of their origin.