This course seeks to situate Ukrainian history in multiple comparative and transnational frameworks. It explores the past and the present of the board of the European continent frequently described as liminal. It examines the perceptions of Central and Eastern Europe, regions whose importance for the European historical experience is evident, yet poorly understood. By thematizing symbolic geography, the course investigates the construction and deconstruction of European mental maps and their limitations. It provides methodological reflection to place the overlapping and competing national historiographical canons into context. Reflecting on the imperial heritages and borderland experiences, it also creates spaces for better understanding of the complex process of formation of collective identities and the role that mass violence played and unfortunately still plays in this part of the world.