Ukraine's “Eurorevolution”

Abstract

The author reconstructs a selective chronology of the protest events that took place in Ukraine in November 2013–January 2014 and comments on various aspects of the political and economic crisis—unprecedented in the post-Soviet history of Ukraine—that brought to the fore the question of the further existence and development of Ukrainian society and the Ukrainian state. He argues that the protests showed that a substantial segment of Ukrainian society was seeking a fundamentally new European structure of political and economic life, a development that took the Yanukovych government by surprise and led to its downfall.

This article is the republished version of:

Ukraine's “Eurorevolution”

Notes

1. This text draws on the many discussions about events in Ukraine that took place on January 28, 2014, at Humboldt University on the initiative of Susanne Frank. I formulated the theses presented in the text following fruitful exchanges with Sabina Adler, Vadim Bedrinets, Volodymyr Masliichuk, Andriy Mokrousov, Ihor Petrovskyi, Arsenii Roginskii, Yurii Ruban, Serhii Savchenko, Iryna Solonenko, and Thorsten Wilhelmy. I am enormously grateful to them. The text relies to a large extent on my blogs about events in Ukraine, published on the site Lessons of History (http://urokiistorii.ru). This article was finished on February 1, 2014.

2. The most striking instance of this occurred in Lviv, where a mass meeting of students denied a Svoboda party parliamentarian of openly fascist inclinations access to the microphone. After this the parliamentarian called them “milksops” (sopliaki).

3. For a video of this television interview, see “Yanukovich privitav Evromaidan opleskami,” TSN, November 26, 2013 (http://tsn.ua/politika/yanukovich-privitav-yevromaydan-opleskami-322222.htm#article_video) (all URLs accessed February 1, 2014).

4. A video recording of this conversation was published by the press service of Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite, “Yanukovich na sammite v Vil'niuse,” Bigmir.net, November 29, 2013 (http://news.bigmir.net/ukraine/777872-Janukovich-na-sammite-v-Vil-njuse–Ja-3-5-goda-odin–VIDEO-).

5. Yu. Ruban, “Porozhni slova v komfortnykh inter'erakh,” Glavkom, December 13, 2013 (http://glavcom.ua/articles/16134.html).

6. V. Paniotto, “Net takoi partii!” Kapital, December 24, 2013 (www.capital.ua/news/11079-net-takoy-partii).

7. For an example of a text that denies the existence of Ukraine as a coherent subject, see O. Figes, “Is There One Ukraine?” Foreign Affairs, December 16, 2013 (www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/140560/orlando-figes/is-there-one-ukraine). Initially this article was titled “There Is No Ukraine.” Compare with the observations about authors of similar Russian-language publications: A. Shekhovtsov, “‘Re-Organisation’ of the Ukrainian Space, or Putin's Agents in Ukraine,” December 20, 2013 (http://anton-shekhovtsev.blogspot.de/2013/12/re-organisation-of-ukrainian-space-or.html).

8. R. Finnin, “Ukrainians: Expect-the-Unexpected Nation,” Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge, December 20, 2013 (www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/blog/post/ukrainians-expect-the-unexpected-nation).

9. V. Pikhovshek, “Dekabr’ 2013 goda, rabochii visit Prezidenta Ukrainy v Moskvu,” Lb.ua, December 17, 2013 (http://lb.ua/news/2013/12/17/247980_dekabr_2013t_goda_rabochiy_vizit.html).

10. For a detailed analysis of the Moscow agreements, see A. Yeremenko, T. Silina, Yu. Skolotianyi, A. Izhak, and A. Lantan, “Zapomni, kak vse nachinalos',” Zerkalo nedeli, December 20, 2013 (http://gazeta.zn.ua/internal/zapomni-kak-vse-nachinalos-_.html).

11. “James Sherr: Ukraine ‘Is in a Dangerous Situation,’” Kiev Post, December 23, 2013 (www.kievpost.com/content/politics/james-sherr-ukraine-is-in-a-dangerous-situation-334161.html).

12. For a more detailed discussion of the depth of the economic crisis and its causes, see B. Grozovskii, “Bankrotstvo Ianukovicha: pochemu Ukrainu zhdet smena vlasti,” Forbes.ru, December 12, 2013 (www.forbes.ru/mneniya-column/mir/248507-bankrotstvo-yanukovicha-pochemu-ukrainu-zhdet-smena-vlasti).

13. On this theme, compare T. Snyder, “Ukraine: Putin's Denial,” New York Review of Books, December 13, 2013 (www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/dec/13/ukraine-putins-denial). See also T. Snyder, “A Way Out for Ukraine?” New York Review of Books, December 5, 2013 (www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/dec/05/ukraine-protests-way-out).

14. J. Sherr, “Ukraina-Rossiia-Evropa: otravlennyi treugol'nik,” Zerkalo nedeli, December 13, 2013 (http://gazeta.zn.ua/internal/ukraina-rossiya-evropa-otravlennyy-treugolnik-_.html).

15. Yu. Ruban, “Maidan iak problema politichnoï ekonomiï,” Glavkom, December 18, 2013 (http://glavcom.ua/articles/16262.html).

16. A. Nowak, “Pytanie do Rafała Ziemkiewicza,” Niezaleźna.pl, December 17, 2013 (http://niezalezna.pl/49626-pytanie-do-rafala-ziemkiewicza). For a more detailed discussion of nationalist symbolism in the Maidan, see A. Umland, “How Spread of Banderite Slogans and Symbols Undermines Ukrainian Nation-Building,” Kiev Post, December 28, 2013 (www.kievpost.com/opinion/op-ed/how-spread-of-banderite-slogans-and-symbols-undermines-ukrainian-nation-building-334389.html).

* A reference to the Battle of Poltava (1709) in the Northern War between Russia and Sweden.—Trans.

17. E. Kiselev, “Maidan: prodolzhenie sleduet,” New Times, December 16, 2013 (http://newtimes.ru/articles/detail/75987.html).