https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6753-8329
![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with participants in the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine, this article argues that the notion of human dignity is critical to mass mobilisation at different phases of anti-government protests. At the start of mass protests, the affirmation of human dignity can serve as a powerful motivation for protest participation. With the growing number of protesters, the notion of human dignity provides a key criterion for the construction of collective identity of protesters and their opponents. Furthermore, dignity might be viewed as a guiding principle for a common vision of an ideal society.
Acknowledgements
I thank EEP editors, reviewers, and participants in the Second Annual Chicago Area Comparative Historical Social Sciences Conference, Northwestern University for their helpful comments. I am also deeply indebted to Ukrainian historians and sociologists who conducted oral history projects and generously shared interview data. The data are retrieved from the oral history project “Maidan.Testimonies” (Maidan. Svidchennia), conducted by the Center for the Studies of History and Culture of East European Jewry at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy under the leadership of Leonid Finberg, and the oral history project “Maidan: Oral History” (Maidan: Usna istoriia) carried out by the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory under the coordination of Tetiana Kovtunovych and Tetiana Pryvalko.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributors
Olena Nikolayenko (Ph.D. Toronto) is Professor of Political Science at Fordham University, USA. She published articles in Comparative Politics, Europe-Asia Studies, International Political Science Review, Slavic Review, Social Movement Studies, and other journals. Her recent book, Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2017), examines interactions between nonviolent youth movements and incumbent governments in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Serbia, and Ukraine.
Notes
1 The full text of the Declaration is available at: https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/.
2 The full text of the Charter at available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX%3A12012P/TXT.
3 Post-communist Ukraine is a prime example of the political regime with weak democratic institutions. Upon the collapse of communism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine witnessed several rounds of competitive elections, but democratic procedures were systematically violated to inhibit the consolidation of democracy. See, for example, Birch (Citation1997), Kubicek (Citation2009), Levitsky and Way (Citation2010).
4 Initially, the term EuroMaidan was applied to describe contentious events in Ukraine because mass protests were triggered by the government’s refusal to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union. The phrase “Revolution of Dignity” subsequently began to be used to define mass mobilisation, reflecting the radicalisation of protesters’ demands and tactics.
5 On population estimates, see the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, https://ukrstat.org/uk/operativ/operativ2007/ds/nas_rik/nas_u/nas_rik_u.html.
6 On the European Dignity Watch, see http://www.europeandignitywatch.org/about-us/.
7 Finberg and Holovach Citation2016, 95, 329, 407, 412, 413, 464, 525, 599, 658, 768.
8 Finberg and Holovach, 467.
9 Pryvalko Citation2017, 369.
10 The group was formed upon the 20th anniversary of Ukraine’s referendum in favour of national independence and included the country’s distinguished intellectuals and civic activists. The full text of the Charter is available in English on the group’s official web site at http://1-12.org.ua/ukrainian-charter-of-the-free-person.
11 Kovtunovych and Pryvalko Citation2015b, 313.
12 Kovtunovych and Pryvalko Citation2015b, 115.
13 Kovtunovych and Pryvalko Citation2015b, 83.
14 Finberg and Holovach, 450.
15 Finberg and Holovach, 239.
16 Pryvalko Citation2017; 116.
17 Kovtunovych and Pryvalko Citation2015b; 12.
18 Pryvalko Citation2018, 79.
19 Pryvalko Citation2018, 135.
20 Pryvalko Citation2017, 374–75.
21 Finberg and Holovach, 395.
22 Kovtunovych and Pryvalko Citation2015b, 35.
23 Finberg and Holovach, 774.
24 Pryvalko Citation2018, 114.
25 Kovtunovych and Pryvalko Citation2015b, 129–30.
26 UINM interview with Olha Godovanets, audio file.
27 Finberg and Holovach, 281.
28 Pryvalko Citation2017, 130.
29 UINM interview with Olha Lishchynska, audio file.