What is your research about?

For the past 12 years, I have been researching the history of federalism in East Central Europe in the 19th and first half of the 20th century. The research focus is on federalist projects that first emerged as ideological utopias in the era of nationalism of the "long 19th century", and that became an element of political rhetoric after the First World War and in the interwar period, or – as I try to prove – even part of realpolitik, especially in the field of state-building, national minority policies, or the introduction of national autonomies. In many cases, East Central European federalism per se was never a realistic program for transforming the state structure or building a political system. The irony of federalism in East Central Europe is that its understanding was only at the theoretical level, at the level of ideological discussions, and never went beyond the national and ideological imaginations and preferences.

This is clearly an interdisciplinary study, involving not only history, but also political science, philosophy, and law. I have published a monograph entitled "Federalist Projects in East Central Europe (1815-1921): From Ideological Utopia to Realpolitik Policy” in Ukrainian, which received the “Przeglad Wschodni” Award, and numerous articles on this topic. I am currently considering the English version of my book.

What is your background?

I graduated from the Drahomanov National Pedagogical University in Kyiv (History and Law), the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (History), and SGH Warsaw School of Economics (Public Administration and Management). My main areas of research include the intellectual history of East Central Europe with a special interest in federalism, which resulted in my PhD thesis on federalism in the political views of the Ukrainian historian and politician Mykhailo Hrushevsky (1866-1934), and the comprehensive entangled history of federalism in the 19th and early 20th centuries, which resulted in my monograph. In 2020 I received the Dr. habil. Degree from the Polish Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Currently, I am a senior research fellow at the Juliusz Mieroszewski Center for Dialogue in Warsaw and an associate of two Historical Institutes of the Polish and Ukrainian Academies of Sciences. I am also a member of the editorial board of "AREI. Journal of Central and Eastern European History and Politics", "Nowy Prometeusz", and "Diplomatic Ukraine". I was awarded the Krzysztof Skubiszewski Fellowship (2015) and the Iwan Wyhowski Award under the patronage of the President of Poland (2022).

Dr Gennadii Korolov won a SNF Scientific Exchanges Grant.