Meeting of the Political and Legal Club “Analityka”
3.6.2025
On June 3, a meeting of the political and legal club “Analityka” was held at the Educational and Research Institute of Social and Humanitarian Sciences, dedicated to the Day of the Formation of the Luhansk Region.
The lecturers of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, the Department of Philosophy and Sociology, and the Department of History and Archaeology, together with the students majoring in “Political Science”, “International Relations”, “Sociology” and SO (History and Civic Education), during the discussion on the transformation of the regional identity of Luhansk Region in the 20th-21st centuries, came to the following conclusions:
- Luhansk Region, as one of the key eastern regions of Ukraine, appears not only as an administrative-territorial unit, but also as a political-cultural space with a multilayered identity. Its historical path is marked by numerous transformations that reflect the interaction of political power, cultural narratives, and regional self-perception. In the 20th-21st centuries, these transformations were especially intense due to modernization processes, Sovietization, the collapse of the USSR, the formation of Ukrainian statehood, and the challenges associated with the war with Russia.
- Luhansk Region, as part of Donbas, developed within the logic of industrial colonialism: the region was perceived primarily as a source of resources for the imperial center. Immigration of workers from central Russia, the dominance of the Russian language in the urban environment, and a weak indigenous intelligentsia contributed to the formation of an identity distant from Ukrainian national narratives.
During the Soviet period, the cultural and political identity of the region’s inhabitants was built around loyalty to the USSR and class solidarity, rather than ethnicity or nationality, which led to the establishment of a special “Soviet” version of regional identity, dominated by Russian-language discourse.
After 1991, Luhansk Region found itself in a competitive environment between the Ukrainian state project and post-Soviet nostalgia. Part of the population retained its attachment to Soviet symbols, while the other began to integrate into the all-Ukrainian cultural and political field. This phenomenon is often referred to as “hybrid identity.”
Against the backdrop of a weak humanitarian policy and the absence of a clear strategy for national integration in the region, pro-Russian political forces actively exploited regional separatism. The identity of Luhansk Region was purposefully modified through information influence, in particular, Russian media.
2014 became a breaking point. The occupation of part of Luhansk Oblast and the creation of the so-called “LPR” became the catalyst for a deep identity crisis. Loyalty to Ukraine sharply strengthened among the population remaining in the controlled territory, while large-scale re-Sovietization and destruction of Ukrainian symbols were carried out in the occupation zone.
In the territory of Luhansk Region controlled by Ukraine, the process of re-symbolization began: a return to national historical memory, strengthening of the Ukrainian language in education, decommunization. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, the volunteer movement, and civil society play a special role in the formation of a new regional identity.
After 2022, millions of displaced persons from Luhansk Region retain their regional affiliation despite relocation. The phenomenon of “Luhansk Region in Exile” testifies to the formation of a new solidarity – “Luhansk” as a civic, rather than ethnic or imperial identity.
During the 20th–21st centuries, Luhansk Region has gone through a difficult path of transformation of regional identity: from an imperial industrial outpost to a field of struggle for national subjectivity. The modern political and cultural identity of the region is formed in conditions of resistance, solidarity and rethinking of the past. It is increasingly acquiring the features of an integrated Ukrainian identity with local content. Politicians and states should support these processes through education, culture, and security initiatives.
Educational and Research Institute of Social and Humanitarian Sciences
