title: Nation-building and Nationalism in the Black Sea Region (Nineteenth–Twenty-First Centuries)
abstract: Rooted in Western European liberalism, the idea of thenation as apoliticized concept of belonging, commonality,and solidarity found its waytothe BlackSea region during the long nineteenth century. Promisingamodernizing reconfiguration of the state, society,e conomy, and culture, it initiallya ttracted especiallyt hose sections of the local elites that wereseeking asymbolical (re-)alignment with Europe by reproducingits institutions and lifestyles. Even if the blind imitation of Western modernity