Professor Oleksandr Zaitsev

Am Planetarium 7 | 07743 Jena
Phone: +49 (0) 3641 9 44082
Mail: zaytsev@ucu.edu.ua

2024 – Current – Senior Researcher at the Mykola Haievoi Center For Modern History, Ukrainian Catholic University2014 – Current – Professor at the Department of History, Ukrainian Catholic University
2004 – 2014 – Head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History of Ukraine, Ukrainian Catholic University
2003 – 2004 – Associate Professor at the Department of History of Ukraine, Ukrainian Catholic University
2002 – 2004 – Head of the Department of Social Disciplines and Humanities, Lviv Institute of Management

1987 – 2004 – Laboratory Assistant, Assistant Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Associate Professor at the Department of History of Ukraine, Ukrainian State University of Forestry And Wood Technology
Academic Degrees:
2014 – Doctor of Historical Sciences (Ivan Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). Thesis: Ukrainian Integral Nationalism of The 1920s and 1930s: Genesis, Evolution, and Comparative Analysis
1994 – Candidate of Historical Sciences (Ivan Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). Thesis: The Parliamentary Activity of the Political Parties of Western Ukraine, 1922-1939
1980 – 1986 – Higher Education in History (Ivan Franko State University of Lviv)

Research Project at the Kolleg

Ukrainian Integral Nationalism and German National Socialism, 1930–1939
This project explores the ideological and political relationships between the Ukrainian integral nationalist movement and German National Socialism in the interwar period. While the military connections between the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), its predecessor the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO), and Nazi Germany have been relatively well studied, the ideological affinities, mutual perceptions, and deeper motivations behind the cooperation remain underexplored. The study critically examines how Ukrainian nationalists—particularly figures such as Dmytro Dontsov and the leaders of the OUN and the Front of National Unity—understood and engaged with Nazi ideas, organizational models, and political methods.

Rejecting both simplistic condemnatory and apologetic narratives, the project seeks to contextualize Ukrainian nationalism within the broader framework of European ultra-nationalist and fascist movements. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including ego-documents, political publications, and internal party materials, the study aims to clarify to what extent the collaboration with the Nazis was influenced by pragmatic calculations, and to what extent by the ideas of ideological kinship. The project will result in an academic article and form a part of a planned monograph, while also supporting teaching at the Ukrainian Catholic University. It contributes to a more nuanced, demythologized understanding of Ukrainian nationalism and its place in transnational studies of fascist and ultra-nationalist movements.

Main areas of research

Ukrainian nationalism in 1920-1930s
Ukrainian political movement in interwar Poland

Positions and memberships

Professor at the Department of History, Ukrainian Catholic University
Senior Researcher at the Mykola Haievoi Center for Modern History, Ukrainian Catholic University and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Monographs

Олександр Зайцев, Олег Беген, Василь Стефанів, Націоналізм і релігія: Греко-Католицька Церква та український націоналістичний рух у Галичині, 1920–1930-ті роки [Nationalism and Religion: The Greek-Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Nationalist Movement in Galicia, 1920s–1930s], за заг. ред. Олександра Зайцева (Львів: Видавництво Українського Католицького Університету, 2011).

Олександр Зайцев, Український інтегральний націоналізм (1920–1930-ті роки): Нариси інтелектуальної історії [Ukrainian Integral Nationalism of the 1920s and 1930s: Essays in Intellectual History] (Київ: Критика, 2013).

Олександр Зайцев, Націоналіст у добі фашизму: Львівський період Дмитра Донцова, 1922–1939 роки. Начерк інтелектуальної біографії [Nationalist in the Fascism Epoch: Dmytro Dontsov’s Lviv Period, 1922–1939. Towards an Intellectual Biography] (Київ: Критика, 2019).

Олександр Зайцев, Українці в Сеймі та Сенаті Польщі (1922–1939) [Ukrainians in the Sejm and Senate of Poland, 1922–1939] (Львів: Видавництво Українського Католицького Університету, 2022).

Вадим Ададуров, Андрій Бабинський, Олександр Зайцев, Образи митрополита Андрея Шептицького в публіцистиці й історіографії української діаспори, 1944–1989 [Images of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptyts'kyi in Ukrainian Diaspora Journalism and Historiography, 1944–1989] рр. (Львів: Видавництво Українського Католицького Університету, 2023).

Edited Volumes

Фашизм і правий радикалізм на сході Европи [Fascism and Right Radicalism in the East of Europe] (= Україна модерна 20 (2013)).

Andreas Umland and Oleh Zaitsev, eds, The Ukrainian Radical Right in Past and Present: Studies in Ideology, Memory and Politics, special issue of Communist and Post-Communist Studies 48, no. 2–3, part 2 (2015).

Наукові записки Українського Католицького Університету [Volume in Honor of Professor Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak]. Серія: Історія 3 (Львів: Видавництво Українського Католицького Університету, 2019).

Articles (selection)

Oleksandr Zaitsev, ‘Ukrainian Integral Nationalism in Quest of a "Special Path" (1920s–1930s)’, Russian Politics and Law 51, no. 5 (2013): 11–32.

Oleksandr Zaitsev, ‘Ukrainian Integral Nationalism and the Greek-Catholic Church in 1920–30s’, in Catholicism and Fascism in Europe 1918–1945, ed. by Jan Nelis, Anne Morelli, and Danny Praet (Hildesheim, Zürich, New York: Georg Olms, 2015), 389–401.

Oleksandr Zaitsev, ‘Fascism or Ustashism? Ukrainian Integral Nationalism in Comparative Perspective, 1920s–1930s’, Communist and Post-Communist Studies 48, no. 2–3 (2015): 183–193.

Oleksandr Zaitsev, ‘Integral Nationalism in the Absence of Nation-State: The Case of Ukraine’, in Conservatives and Right Radicals in Interwar Europe, ed. by Marco Bresciani (Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2021), 118–142.

Oleksandr Zaitsev, ‘On Ustashism and Fascism: A Response to Critics’, Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society 7, no. 1 (2021): 125–143.

Oleksandr Zaitsev, ‘OUN – UPA and Sinn Féin – IRA: An Initial Comparison’, in Ireland and Ukraine: Studies in Comparative Imperial and National History, ed. by Serhiy Velychenko, Joseph Ruane, and Liudmyla Hrynevych (Stuttgart: ibidem Press, 2022), 471–488.

Олександр Зайцев, ‘Історіографічні дискусії про причини та генезу «антипольської акції» УПА 1943–1944 років’ [Historiographic Discussions About the Causes and Genesis of UPA’s “Anti-Polish Action” in 1943–1944], Ukrainian Historical Review / Український історичний огляд 3 (2024): 65–101.

Reviews (selection)

Oleksandr Zaitsev, ‘De-Mythologizing Bandera: Towards a Scholarly History of the Ukrainian Nationalist Movement’, Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society 1, no. 2 (2015): 411–420.

Oleksandr Zaitsev, review of Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe, Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist. Fascism, Genocide, and Cult, European History Quarterly 46, no. 1 (2016): 174–176.

Александр Зайцев, ‘История Украины глазами российских историков’ [History of Ukraine through the Eyes of Russian Historians], Ab Imperio 3 (2016): 377–391.

Heather Coleman, Yaroslav Hrytsak, Tamara Hundorova, Oleksandr Zaitsev, and Myroslav Shkandrij, ‘A Roundtable on Myroslav Shkandrij’s Ukrainian Nationalism: Politics, Ideology, and Literature, 1929–1956’, Canadian Slavonic Papers 59, no. 1–2 (2017): 131–152.

Oleksandr Zaitsev, ‘History of Ukrainian Nationalism through the Eyes of a Czech Historian’, review of David Svoboda, Jablko z oceli: Zrod, vývoj a činnost ukrajinského radikálního nacionalismu v letech 1920–1939 (Praha: Academia; Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů, 2021), Arei: Journal for Central and Eastern European History and Politics 1 (2023): 224–237.

Please find the full list of publications on the UCU website.