EN
Every new epoch brings new slogans which are used to develop the sense of belonging to a generation, a group of Ukrainian intellectuals united by a certain under-standing of the nation-building mission. One of the most recent slogans — “Ukrainian reconquest” — is studied in the paper from the perspective of “archeology of knowledge.” Borrowed from the Spanish history, in the Ukrainian context this concept is interpreted as a program of decolonizing national consciousness and therapeutic practices aimed at treating the post-totalitarian traumas. “Ukrainian reconquest” as a strategy of the national regeneration is compared in the paper to the discourse of the “conquest” also taken from the Spanish past. The main difference between the two projects consists in the approaches towards modernization. If “reconquest” is a nativist program criticizing both the Soviet and neo-capitalist types of modernization and leading the Ukrainian nation to the archaic past, the “conquest” is a manifestation of European melancholy, of a dream to see Ukraine among the “civilized countries.” In the conclusion, the “Ukrainian reconquest” is presented as a contradictory slogan which reflects the difficulties of nation-building, which the country faces during the first decade of the third millennium.