Professional Affiliation

Professor of Modern History of Ukraine, Ukrainian Catholic University

Expert Bio

Oleksandr Zaitsev was born in 1964 in Lviv, Ukraine. He graduated from the History Faculty of the Ivan Franko Lviv State University in 1986. During 1987-2004 he worked at the Department of History, Ukrainian State University of Forestry and Wood Technology as a laboratory assistant, assistant lecturer, senior lecturer, and associate professor. Since 2004 — associate professor at the Department of Modern History of Ukraine, Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. In 2005-2014 he served as a head of the Department. In May, 2014 Oleksandr Zaitsev defended the dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Science in History "Ukrainian Integral Nationalism of the 1920s and 1930s: Genesis, Evolution, Comparative Analysis" at the Institute of Ukrainian Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Wilson Center Project

"Retrospective Ancestral Constitution: Ultra-nationalist Movement of the 1920s–1940s in Post-Maidan Ukrainian Memory Politics"

Project Summary

"Ultra-Nationalism in Stateless Nations of Eastern Europe, 1918-1941: A Comparative Study"

The aim of the project is a comparative study of ultra-nationalist movements in stateless nations of Eastern Europe from the end of World War I until 1941. Oleksandr Zaitsev will use the OUN and Croatian Ustaša as main cases for comparison, although other cases (Slovak, Macedonian, Lithuanian, etc.) would be taken into account as well.

An important issue is the relationship of ultra-nationalist movements in stateless nations with fascism. It includes two main aspects: the empiric historical (their attitude to fascism and, in particular, to National Socialism, relations with fascist regimes, reception of ideas, organizational principles, methods, etc.) and typological (placing ultra-nationalism in stateless nations in the typology of authoritarian nationalism, heuristic value of the interpretation of individual movements as fascist).

Major Publications

Ukrainian Integral Nationalism of the 1920s and 1930s: Essays in Intellectual History (Kyiv 2013) - in Ukrainian

Nationalism and Religion: the Greek-catholic Church and Ukrainian Nationalist Movement in Galicia, 1920s - 1930s / with Oleh Behen and Vasyl Stefaniv (Lviv 2011) - in Ukrainian

'Ukrainian Integral Nationalism and the Greek-Catholic Church in 1920-30s,' in: Nelis Jan/Morelli Anne/Praet Danny (eds.), Catholicism and Fascism in Europe 1918-1945, 2013, Olms, Hildesheim-Zürich-New York (forthcoming).

Previous Terms

Fulbright Scholar, "Ultra-Nationalism in Stateless Nations of Eastern Europe, 1918-1941: A Comparative Study," Kennan Institute, 9/1/14 - 3/31/15