A Ucrânia no Brasil: conflito, política e visibilidade

Abstract

This thesis deals with the penetration of Ukraine into Brazil in several layers based on the history of the establishment of immigrants at the end of the 19th century, especially in the countryside of Paraná. Ruthenian settlers in the following decades become Ukrainians in the diasporic context thanks to nationalists who circulate in transactional contexts. Ukraine failed to consolidate itself as a sovereign and independent state in the 1920s, while immigrants settled in Brazil, where Ukrainian activities continued to develop until the following decade. The Estado Novo's nationalization policy arbitrarily contributed to the transformation of Ukrainians into Brazilians, which was consolidated after the Second World War. The insertion of descendants of Ukrainians of peasant origin into the surrounding society occurs together with the arrival of a contingent of Ukrainians, the majority of whom were displaced from the Second World War. Ukrainian activities begin to develop again in Brazil during the period in which Western Ukraine becomes part of Soviet Ukraine, which will break ties or any type of interaction between “Ukraine” and the diaspora.In Brazil, Ukrainian-Brazilians develop their activities in multiethnic contexts, with a marked Gaucho influence, where clubs and, above all, religious institutions establish limits of belonging, marked by some more conservative contexts than those of other ethnicities and their own forms of consumption. From 1991 onwards, Ukraine reestablished its independence, which allowed the establishment of ties, which included political and commercial relations, as well as the possibility for Ukrainian- Brazilians to get to know the “motherland”. In the pandemic context, some “conservative” individuals without Ukrainian origins will propose “Ukrainizing Brazil”, inspired by an event in Ukraine in the context of Euromaidan, but which are no longer vocal after being criticized by Ukrainian-Brazilians in the year 2020. Ukrainian descendants are Brazilian citizens, without the possibility of applying for Ukrainian citizenship, they suffered limited impacts from events that occurred in Ukraine in the last decade. For example, the fact that the presence of Ukrainian-Brazilians among Brazilian warriors fighting in the war against the Russians is rare. In context, there is the arrival of “refugees” from Ukraine with the collaboration of several actors, including Ukrainians who came to Brazil post-1991 and who form their own “communities”, separate from the activities of the descendants of Ukrainian immigrants from the waves. who have now become Brazilians.