Celebrating Borderlands in a Wider Europe

This book addresses Estonian, Ukrainian and Georgian identities which have developed against the backdrop of Russia’s neo-imperialist policies and the EU’s normative projection of power. With the decreasing explanatory value of the “post-Soviet” frame, the authors propose the concept of borderlands in order to bring together a group of countries located at the point where different cultural, religious, ethnic and civilisational trends and systems intersect. The authors argue that for borderland countries nation-building encompasses meaning-making strategies aimed at self-identification, consolidation and integration, along with strategies of adjusting to practical tools and mechanisms of governance generated and shared by Europe. Performative cultural and sports events, such as the 2012 UEFA European Championship in Lviv, the Song and Dance Festival in Tallinn in 2014 and the 2015 Youth Olympic Games in Tbilisi, are at the centre of each of these case studies.