Denial of a Distinct Identity

Aggressors may deliberately and systematically disseminate a narrative that an Indigenous people is not a distinct nation but merely a regional or wayward branch of the metropole's people. Constructing a false myth of a single common root allows the aggressor to declare the political independence of the colonized society a historical misunderstanding and to justify any violent actions as a natural process of "reunification."

ID: T0010
Sub-techniques:  No sub-techniques
People: Ukrainians
Version: 1.0
Created: 21 April 2026
Last Modified: 21 April 2026

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
C0067 All-Russian Census and the Erasure of Identity (1897)

Official recording of Ukrainians exclusively as "Little Russians" (a subgroup of the Great Russian tribe) during the first general census, aimed at the bureaucratic destruction of the notion of a separate people[1].

C0053 Creation of a Single "Soviet People" (1958–1970)

An ideological directive to erase nations: «the new party program on the 'merging of nations' into a single Soviet people»[2].

S0009 Diplomacy

The introduction of strict political censorship. Under threat of punishment, the population was forbidden even to say aloud that their lands constituted a separate state entity: "and let no one utter such voices, that the Little Russian land is of the hetman's regiment"[3].

S0008 Government

A course toward the complete absorption and destruction of the very name of the Cossack state. The empire sought "to eradicate the Zaporozhian Host of the Lower Dnipro and erase its name forever... to enslave the entire Little Russian people to itself forever"[3][4].

S0008 Government

Official refusal to recognize the language and identity: "There was no Ukrainian language, there is none, and there cannot be one, and whoever does not understand this is an enemy of Russia"[2].

S0008 Government

Ideological justification of the censor's refusal: "writing back to the author that there was no need to permit for printing a grammar of a language doomed to nonexistence"[2].

S0008 Government

An ideological directive to erase nations: «the new party program on the 'merging of nations' into a single Soviet people»[2].

S0008 Government

Official recording of Ukrainians exclusively as "Little Russians" (a subgroup of the Great Russian tribe) during the first general census, aimed at the bureaucratic destruction of the notion of a separate people[1].

C0011 Integration Reforms of Peter I and the Great Northern War (1700–1708)

A course toward the complete absorption and destruction of the very name of the Cossack state. The empire sought "to eradicate the Zaporozhian Host of the Lower Dnipro and erase its name forever... to enslave the entire Little Russian people to itself forever"[3][4].

C0007 Kolomak Articles (1687)

The introduction of strict political censorship. Under threat of punishment, the population was forbidden even to say aloud that their lands constituted a separate state entity: "and let no one utter such voices, that the Little Russian land is of the hetman's regiment"[3].

S0011 Moscow Patriarchate

Within the framework of the new Muscovite state ideology, a deliberate erasure of a separate Ukrainian identity began. The author constructs a false myth of unity: he "tailors history to the scenario he needs in order to substantiate that Kyiv is directly related to Moscow"[4].

S0021 Propaganda

Use of monumental propaganda and celebrations of the Pereiaslav Council to impose the concept of a "single people" and to deny an independent Ukrainian identity[4].

C0006 Publication of the "Synopsis" (1674)

Within the framework of the new Muscovite state ideology, a deliberate erasure of a separate Ukrainian identity began. The author constructs a false myth of unity: he "tailors history to the scenario he needs in order to substantiate that Kyiv is directly related to Moscow"[4].

G0009 Russian Empire

Official refusal to recognize the language and identity: "There was no Ukrainian language, there is none, and there cannot be one, and whoever does not understand this is an enemy of Russia"[2].

G0009 Russian Empire

Ideological justification of the censor's refusal: "writing back to the author that there was no need to permit for printing a grammar of a language doomed to nonexistence"[2].

G0009 Russian Empire

Official recording of Ukrainians exclusively as "Little Russians" (a subgroup of the Great Russian tribe) during the first general census, aimed at the bureaucratic destruction of the notion of a separate people[1].

C0047 The Ems Ukaz and Total Censorship (1876–1887)

Ideological justification of the censor's refusal: "writing back to the author that there was no need to permit for printing a grammar of a language doomed to nonexistence"[2].

C0087 The Ideological Campaign of the "300th Anniversary of Reunification" and the Transfer of Crimea (1954)

Use of monumental propaganda and celebrations of the Pereiaslav Council to impose the concept of a "single people" and to deny an independent Ukrainian identity[4].

C0046 The Valuev Circular: Ban on the Language and Schools (1862–1869)

Official refusal to recognize the language and identity: "There was no Ukrainian language, there is none, and there cannot be one, and whoever does not understand this is an enemy of Russia"[2].

G0008 Tsardom of Muscovy

Within the framework of the new Muscovite state ideology, a deliberate erasure of a separate Ukrainian identity began. The author constructs a false myth of unity: he "tailors history to the scenario he needs in order to substantiate that Kyiv is directly related to Moscow"[4].

G0008 Tsardom of Muscovy

The introduction of strict political censorship. Under threat of punishment, the population was forbidden even to say aloud that their lands constituted a separate state entity: "and let no one utter such voices, that the Little Russian land is of the hetman's regiment"[3].

G0008 Tsardom of Muscovy

A course toward the complete absorption and destruction of the very name of the Cossack state. The empire sought "to eradicate the Zaporozhian Host of the Lower Dnipro and erase its name forever... to enslave the entire Little Russian people to itself forever"[3][4].

G0010 USSR

An ideological directive to erase nations: «the new party program on the 'merging of nations' into a single Soviet people»[2].

G0010 USSR

Use of monumental propaganda and celebrations of the Pereiaslav Council to impose the concept of a "single people" and to deny an independent Ukrainian identity[4].

References

  1. Татьяна Таирова-Яковлева. (2011). ИВАН МАЗЕПА И РОССИЙСКАЯ ИМПЕРИЯ ИСТОРИЯ «ПРЕДАТЕЛЬСТВА».
  2. Михаил Зыгарь. (2023). Война и наказание: Как Россия уничтожала Украину.