Vol. XXXVI · 2005

Andriy Zayarnyuk

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There are some studies of how contemporary national histories, especially those found in school textbooks, are infused with stereotypes and project a nationalist vision of the world back in time.3 Usually, the nationalist perspective on the past is explained by the ideology imposed by the nation-state -national history faithfully serves the nation-state's interests. In this article, I will try to investigate how Ukrainian national history appeared in nineteenth-century Galicia in the absence of a nation-state, and look at its meanings and uses and its role in the construction of the Ukrainian nation. This article will also try to find out how nationalist history became a plausible, viable, and lasting explanation of the past with heavy implications for the present.