SUMMARY:

The author argues that, with very few exceptions, the history of Ukraine of the nineteenth century, written in any language, still largely presents a tabula rasa. Key topics remain unexplored by scholars, including the history of concepts used at the time – a sine qua non for any sustained analysis of the cultural sphere. There is no cohort of universally recognized authorities on the history of the late imperial period in Ukrainian lands that is comparable with the group of highly reputed experts on the Early Modern period, for example. The author concludes that the question posed by Mark von Hagen in his 1995 seminal article “Does Ukraine Have a History?” remains open when it comes to the nineteenth century. The twenty years of immense opportunities that have passed since 1995 seem to have been largely wasted on petty bustle and the wars over history and memorial politics.