When Ukraine struggled for statehood and independence in the winter of 1917–1918, it aspired to a linguistically, culturally and religiously heterogeneous territory. This article investigates the formation of the minority policies of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. It explores the processes of minority legislation
and implementation, paying particular attention to the agency of minority representatives. The article claims that the emergence of Ukrainian minority policy was a pragmatic alliance between, on the one side, a nationalising and minoritising state seeking legitimacy and, on the other, non-Ukrainian activists seeking the social transformation of their own group.

Kuzmany, Börries. “The Emergence of Ukrainian Minority Policies at the dawn of Ukrainian Independence, 1917-18,” in: Europe-Asia Studies (2026). Open access

“Imperiales Gehabe, imperiale Intervention, imperiale Vermittlung: Die österreichische Regierung und ihr Umgang mit regionaler Heterogenität [Imperial airs, imperial intervention, imperial brokering: the Austrian government’s dealing with regional herterogeneity],“ in: Heppner, Harald, Varga, Bálint (eds.): Machtumgang in Krisenzeiten. Fallbeispiele politischen Reagierens von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart (Graz, University Library Graz), 83–94

This handbook entry traces Brody’s history through three centuries.

Brody, in: Levi Cooper, Judith Kalik, Nathan Shifriss; Israel Bartal, Gershon David Hundert, Kenneth B. Moss, David Rechter;  Ilia Lurie (Hrsg.) A Historical Atlas of Jewish Galicia and Bukovina. (Jerusalem 2025). Online

The themed section consistes of selected papers of the concluding conference of the NTAutonomy ERC project “The Theory and Practice of Non-Territorial Autonomy in Europe”.

It was published in one of the leading journals in nationalism studies “Nations and Nationalism” (Volume 31, Issue 2).

The publication is available online.

The theory and practice of non-territorial autonomy in Europe—A historical perspective

• Pages: 413-419

The Moravian Society in the Era of the Nonterritorial Autonomy (1905–1918): Civic Emancipation and National Life as Two Sides of the Same Coin

• Pages: 420-430

Imperial uses of non-territorial autonomy: The projects of André Mandelstam and Boris Nolde

• Pages: 431-446

“A withered olive branch”? The curious situation of Hungarian Jews during the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire

• Pages: 447-462

Non-territorial autonomy in Russia during the revolution and the civil war

• Pages: 463-479

Polish non-territorial autonomy in revolutionary Ukraine (1917–1918): A transitional experiment

• Pages: 480-492

Non-territorial arrangements in interwar Soviet Ukraine: The development of the judicial network for minority populations

• Pages: 493-508

Does non-territorial autonomy essentialise ethnicity? Cultural autonomy legislation in interwar Estonia

• Pages: 509-522

The article challenges the conventional understanding of the early Soviet nationalities policy as primarily territorial, arguing that non-territorial (personal) national autonomy arrangements were a significant and integral aspect of the Soviet policy at least until the mid-1920s.

“Territorial in Principle, Personal in Practice: Early Soviet Non-Territorial National Autonomy Arrangements,” Ab Imperio 1 (2025), 181–206.

This article investigates the complex interplay of cultures in Habsburg Galicia, a region marked by its diverse linguistic, religious, and ethnic makeup. It focuses on cultural practices and suggests understanding multilingualism, overarching tropes, and intersecting identities as a form of cultural hybridity. As Galician culture was more than agglutinating several national cultures, this article suggests narrating its history as a plurale tantum.

Link to the open access article: Börries Kuzmany, “Hybrydowość kulturowa w przestrzeniach wielokulturowych. Historie kultury galicyjskiej [Cultural Hybridity in Multicultural Regions: Histories of Galician Culture]“, In: Krakowskie Pismo Kresowe 16 (2024), 13-70

On 21 November my recent monograph Accomodating National Diversity was launched at the University of Graz.

Link to the event.

This book explores the practice of non-territorial autonomy, a concept based on collective rights and used to address national diversity within a single state. It examines its strands of development and the processes of transfer in the Habsburg monarchy and Russia, connecting them to processes in the interwar period. The flexible instrument was able to adapt to different political and ideological frameworks.

Link to: Börries Kuzmany, Vom Umgang mit nationaler Vielfalt. Eine Geschichte der nicht-territorialen Autonomie in Europa. Berlin, De Gruyter 2024 (open access)

Analysing the political, cultural, and socio-economic agency of non-Ukrainians in Ukraine from a transnational perspective is at the core of this project. The study focuses primarily on Poles, Jews, and Russians, the numerically and historically most relevant nationalities, but will also examine Germans, Greeks, Belarusians, Czechs, and Moldovans. The project’s research questions are structured in five larger thematic clusters: the analysis of in-group transformations among non-Ukrainians, non-Ukrainians’ interactions with state authorities, non-Ukrainians’ relations with co-nationals outside Ukraine, the interactions among non-Ukrainians themselves, and the ways in which non-Ukrainians have experienced violence.

For more information on the project, please refer to the project website.

The NURU project invites prospective candidates to join this collaborative four-years project. The Warsaw research team calls for two position (1 PhD, 1 Post-Doc) and the Vienna team four one (1 PhD):

1. Nationalities inhabiting the wider regions adjacent to the Black Sea (PhD position Vienna)
2. Levels, degrees, and combinations of cooperation between non-Ukrainian nationalities (open rank PostDoc/PhD Warsaw)
3. The disintegration of the “triune people”: Belarusians and Russians in their relationship with Ukrainians (open rank PhD/PostDoc Warsaw)

Click here for the detailed job advertisement.

This book explores the practice of non-territorial autonomy, a concept based on collective rights and used to address national diversity within a single state. It examines its strands of development and the processes of transfer in the Habsburg monarchy and Russia, connecting them to processes in the interwar period. The flexible instrument was able to adapt to different political and ideological frameworks.

Link to: Börries Kuzmany, Vom Umgang mit nationaler Vielfalt. Eine Geschichte der nicht-territorialen Autonomie in Europa. Berlin, De Gruyter 2024 (open access)

Link to the invitation to the book launch taking place on 26 April 2024

As a visiting professor at the Lviv Polytechnic National University, Börries Kuzman gave five lectures on „Multiculturalism of (Western) Ukraine and its significance for European history“.