SUMMARY:

Viacheslav Likhachev is a historian and political scientist, a well-known expert on right-wing and ultranationalist movements in Russia and Ukraine. Interviewed by Andriy Portnov, Likhachev reflects on the problem of personal involvement with events that he is expected to analyze objectively as an expert. The interview touches upon the much trumpeted theme of the role of Ukrainian nationalists in the Euromaidan and in subsequent political developments. While admitting the visibility of nationalists during the revolution, Likhachev stresses the diversity of the group indiscriminatingly branded as “nationalists,” the marginal role of xenophobes among them, and the creative appropriation of their symbols by the broader revolutionary movement, which has transformed the original meaning of nationalist emblems and slogans. The concluding part of the interview is dedicated to the discussion of the dynamics of xenophobia in the Ukrainian society (arguably, decreasing after reaching its peak sometime around 2008), and the prospects for developing multicultural social identities in Ukraine.