Our virtual series “Discover Ukraine: history, culture, and its people” will continue on 18 May with a lecture “From Grain of Wheat to Gas Pipeline. Ukraine’s Economy from the 18th to the 21st century” by Dr Boris Belge, University of Basel.
Registration link https://forms.gle/rpp6i6MTH427mxRo6
Ukraine has an immense wealth of raw materials and fertile soils. However, given its GDP per capita, it only ranked in the middle of the world’s economies before the outbreak of the war. This lecture will give insights into Ukraine’s economy by telling the story of three goods: a grain of wheat, a coal brick, and natural gas. These goods address a central question of Ukraine’s history: Was it a colony of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, hampered in its economic development? I will provide some answers to that question and strongly emphasize that we need to look at political, social, and cultural factors to understand Ukraine’s economic history instead of only fixating on numbers and graphs.
Study Group for Minority History 