ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role that militant nationalism has played in Ukraine's political development and, drawing on the historical background, assesses its actual and possible influence on Ukraine's evolution into a viable democratic state. The disintegration of the Soviet Union in the autumn of 1991 saw Ukraine reclaim its status as an independent state for the third time this century. To understand Ukraine's present situation, and to appreciate the traditional place of militarism in Ukrainian nationalism, it is necessary to consider a brief summary of some important steps on the rocky path of Ukrainian nationhood. The key to successful democratization may not be the simple introduction of democratic procedures and institutions, but the creation and maintenance of an environment or "state of mind" in which they can function safely. The chief enemy of the Ukrainian Galician Army was not Soviet Russia, however, but a resurgent expansionist Poland.
