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ear Reader, Are revolutions really the “locomotives of history”, as Karl Marx asserted back in the 19th century? When in 2013 Viktor Yanukovych failed to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union and Ukrainians took to the streets to demand their European path many believed that indeed was the case. However, once the flames of rebellion faded and Ukraine began to struggle to find itself in another postrevolution reality, it remains prudent to ask: has revolution simply become a permanent feature of the country’s political culture? As a matter of fact, the question as to how many revolutions modern Ukraine has had remains open and debatable. Not surprisingly, most people would say that there were two: the Orange Revolution and the EuroMaidan. In this issue we return to the thesis that Paweł Kowal and Maciej Wapiński put forward three years ago in New Eastern Europe which adds the 1990 students’ hunger strike to the sequence of revolutionary events in Ukraine. Consequently, our authors map the country’s post-Soviet transformation through the prism of revolutionary events. Naturally, political transformations, peaceful or not, have not been limited to Ukraine. They have been occurring in many areas of the post-Soviet space. This fact has been cherished in the West. However, the picture of Armenia, as penned down by Małgorzata Nocuń, illustrates how such an assumption is not entirely correct. Even once a part of the same unit, we need to look at the post-Soviet republics as states that have taken different paths in the last decades and continue to experience different pressures from Russia. To understand this further we should cautiously follow the developments within them, as well as within Russia. A good start are three texts: Sean Guillory on the failure of the Russian protests to achieve any sustainable success, Daniel Wańczyk on the changes taking place in the life of the Arctic seen in the example of Vorkuta and Wojciech Siegień who notes the indoctrination through education that is now increasingly present in the Russian Federation. We point to these phenomena as we enter into 2017. A hundred years after the October Revolution which brought significant changes to this region and whose legacy is still felt in many societies today. Wishing you a pleasant read and all the best for the New Year. The Editors
Contents Opinion & Analysis 8
Three Revolutions. A research project Georges Mink, Paweł Kowal System transformation of post-Soviet Ukraine is one of the most interesting topics for researchers around the world. Understanding this process requires a deeper look into social developments that took place in this country over the last 25 years.
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Once a protester, always a protester Kateryna Pryshchepa
as to take the country along a European path. Since 2014 the reform process in Ukraine has continued, albeit at a slow pace.
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Three myths of Ukraine’s revolutions Nataliia Pohorila
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What makes a revolution (or not) Diāna Potjomkina and Ilvija Bruģe
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Whatever happened to “Russia without Putin”? Sean Guillory
The Ukrainian Revolution on Granite began as a student demonstration in early October 1990. It lasted a little over two weeks and directly involved slightly more than 300 people. Unexpectedly, this littleknown student hunger strike turned out to be one of the most remarkable events of the late Soviet period. It set a blueprint for the future revolutions in Ukraine.
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We were acting as neighbours, as friends of Ukraine
The mass protests in late 2011 and early 2012 changed Russia, but not in the ways the tens of thousands who protested that winter had hoped. Rather than a flowering of democracy as many desired, Putin has only further consolidated his authoritarian dominance over the last five years.
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Armenians love their country – that is a feeling deeply rooted in Armenian culture. Despite this attachment, they still see that Armenia offers them no future. Practically all Armenians stress the need for change.
Interview with Valdas Adamkus
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New tools of the revolution Roman Romanyuk It seems that one of Viktor Yanukovych’s biggest mistakes was not believing that Ukraine in 2004 and Ukraine in 2013 were two completely different countries. The fundamental difference between them was the role the internet and social media played.
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Beyond Maidan Nezalezhnosti Nataliya Zubar, Vitalii Ovcharenko
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High stakes in Ukraine. From revolution to reform Kostiantyn Fedorenko The two basic social demands from both the Orange Revolution and EuroMaidan have been to stop corruption and the oligarchy as well
Talkin’ bout a revolution Małgorzata Nocuń
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Kyrgyzstan: a revolutionary drama Christopher Schwartz
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Putin pushing the envelope Anton Barbashin At the beginning of 2017 it would seem impossible for Russia to co-operate with the West as it had before. And yet, Russia’s role and level of official communication with Washington and Berlin has to some extent drastically increased. Vladimir Putin clearly understands that the West would rather swallow its own words, forget about “red lines” and maintain an illusion of cooperation with Russia than to confront it.
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Consequences of Putin’s disinformation war in Europe David Matsaberidze
153 Familiar strangers Maxim Edwards
With the increasing shift of right-wing parties from peripheries to the centre of nationallevel politics, negative consequences for Europe are certain to emerge. The proven link between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and a range of European far-right parties is testimony to the fact that Moscow is trying not only to curtail Europe on its Eastern borderland, but to crack the European Union from the inside as well.
History & Memory
102 Making the unreal real Wojciech Siegeń 108 Combative pasts. The politics of history in post-communist Europe George Soroka In an age of globalisation, when people are moving more freely and ranging more widely across borders than ever before, the politics of history reflect existential anxieties related to the breakdown of mnemonic rootedness, making the question of whose understanding of the past will be recognised as canonical across multiple contexts increasingly pertinent.
116 Laying the groundwork for reconciliation Georges Mink
161 Rock of ages Jonathan Bousfield Nowhere is the interplay between rock music and politics more evident than in the story of Prague’s legendary Plastic People of the Universe. Banned from playing official concerts in the early 1970s and put on trial by Czechoslovakia’s hard-line communist regime in 1976, the Plastic People inspired future president Vaclav Havel to launch Charter 77 which led to the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
167 His Highness’s life. Parallel to reality Andrzej Zaręba
People, Ideas, Inspiration 174 Is it time to rebrand Eastern Europe? A debate with Rebecca Harms, Balázs Jarábik, Cornelius Ochmann and Anastasia Sergeeva.
Eastern Café
Interviews 124 The shadow over Hungary’s history An interview with Paul Lendvai
131 Shevardnadze could listen, but he did not hear An interview with Nino Burjanadze
182 A film which divides Poles and Ukrainians Kaja Puto 187 The spectre of neoliberalism János Széky
Reports
191 A church for the state or churches for the people? Przemysław Pazik
145 The black island of the Arctic Daniel Wańczyk
196 An unexpected focus on the South Andriy Lyubka
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER The Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław office@kew.org.pl, www.kew.org.pl
Zamek Wojnowice ul. Zamkowa 2, 55-330 Wojnowice, Poland CO-EDITOR European Solidarity Centre ecs@ecs.gda.pl, www.ecs.gda.pl
EDITORIAL BOARD Yaroslav Hrytsak, Paweł Kowal, Ivan Krastev, Georges Mink, Zdzisław Najder, Cornelius Ochmann, Mykola Riabchuk, Eugeniusz Smolar, Lilia Shevtsova, Roman Szporluk, Jan Zielonka EDITORIAL TEAM Adam Reichardt, Editor-in-Chief Iwona Reichardt, Deputy Editor, Lead Translator Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska, Editor Viktoria Chaban, Editorial Intern Mark Wieczorek, Editorial Intern COPYEDITING Martin O’Reilly ILLUSTRATIONS AND COVER Andrzej Zaręba COVER LAYOUT Do Lasu s.c SUBSCRIPTION dystrybucja@kew.org.pl LAYOUT AND FORMATTING Małgorzata Chyc | AT Wydawnictwo EDITORIAL OFFICES New Eastern Europe ul. Mazowiecka 25 p. 808, 30-019 Kraków editors@neweasterneurope.eu European Solidarity Centre Plac Solidarności 1, 80-863 Gdańsk tel.: +48 58 767 79 71 ecs@ecs.gda.pl
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Three Revolutions of Ukraine
In April 2014 New Eastern Europe published a text authored by Paweł Kowal (at that time Member of the European Parliament) and Maciej Wapiński, a young researcher and specialist on Ukraine. The text was titled “A tale of three Maidans”. It presented a thesis that Ukrainians have developed a tradition of urban protests which started in 1990 and can be regarded as a “sequence of events in the framework of unfinished transformation”. Equally importantly, the authors concluded: “Regardless of who will govern Ukraine, he or she should start with serious reforms. Otherwise, a new Maidan will happen again in the next several years.” On the third anniversary of the 2014 revolution we return to these theses but in a more developed way. We present articles with the first findings of a research project that has been undertaken by the College of Europe (Natolin) and which aims at uncovering the lesser known stories of Ukraine’s struggle for independence. Read on pages: 8 – 60
Co-financed by
Three Revolutions A research project G E O R G E S M INK, PAW E Ł K O WA L
System transformation of post-Soviet Ukraine is one of the most interesting topics for researchers around the world. Understanding this process requires a deeper look into social developments that took place in this country over the last 25 years. They have led to at least three mass protests organised in Kyiv: the Revolution on Granite, the Orange Revolution and the EuroMaidan. The research project, titled Three Revolutions (3R), which is being carried out at the College of Europe Natolin*, refers to three social and political upheavals which have taken place in Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet Union. We have decided to call these three breakthrough moments “revolutions”, fully aware that recognising them as revolutionary is a research hypothesis, not a given. The hypothesis should be further investigated, and such is one of the goals of the research team. Another thorny issue is settling on the actual number of protests that have taken place at the Maidan Square. Some commentators claim that “there might be a third Maidan”, which suggests that, as far as the protest events in Ukraine are concerned, the only ones that should be recognised as “revolutions” are the * Partner institutions for this project include: Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Center for Eastern European Studies at the University of Warsaw, University College London (School of Slavonic and East European Studies), University of Alberta Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, the Centre d’études des mondes Russe Caucasien et Centre Européen (CNRS-EHESS), Paris.
Three Revolutions, Georges Mink, Paweł Kowal
Opinion & Analysis
2004/2005 Orange Revolution and the 2013/2014 EuroMaidan. Social activist, Nataliya Zubar, however, speaks about seven Maidans in the history of post-Soviet Ukraine. These include: the Revolution on the Granite, the 2000 – 2001 “Ukraine without Kuchma” protests, the Orange Revolution, the “Against Corruption” protest (July 2006-March 2007), the Tax Maidan (November-December 2010), the Language Maidan (July-August 2012), and the EuroMaidan. Significant meaning Although a lot still remains unknown, one thing is certain: the phenomenon of system transformation in post-Soviet Ukraine is one of the most interesting topics for researchers around the world. There is no doubt that contemporary Ukraine has had at least three mass protests organised at the Independence Square in Kyiv. These are: the 1990 Revolution on Granite, the 2004/2005 Orange Revolution and the 2013/2014 EuroMaidan (often referred to as the Revolution of Dignity). The Revolution on Granite was the first wave of Maidan protests in the history of contemporary Ukraine. It led to the departure of a high-level official, the first in the USSR’s history, and it was a kind of prefiguration, a model for the revolutionary events that took place in Ukraine in the subsequent years. It also entered the canon of non-violent revolutions. The 2004/2005 and 2013/2014 revolutions had a wider reach and mobilised Ukrainian society at an unprecedented level. They also had an impact on contemporary Europe and the European Union and United States’ policies towards the region. These, in turn, influenced both Ukraine’s internal and external affairs. Thus, Western reception of the revolutionary events in Ukraine is one of the most interesting phenomena that Western reception we have been examining, especially in the context of of the revolutionary the EuroMaidan. events in Ukraine Our analysis of the Maidan protests involves various research perspectives, including a comparative analy- is one of the sis. For example: we try to determine to what extent most interesting these 20th and 21st century revolutions are rooted in phenomena. Ukrainian political culture, what are the influences of the Cossack tradition, and what role is played by Western values such as: liberal democracy or nationalism. We are also looking at Ukraine’s protests and revolutions through the prism theories on revolutionary movements which are put forward by researchers around the world. We are particularly interested in understanding to what extent the protest actions we focus on have been revolutions or “refolu-
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Opinion & Analysis
Three Revolutions, Georges Mink, Paweł Kowal
tions” to use Timothy Garton Ash’s term. In other words: to what extent they have introduced real change to the power system. Our research includes an inquiry into how we can compare the Ukrainian experience with revolutionary processes that took place in Poland (especially after the establishment of Solidarity in 1980) and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. We also examine whether we should subordinate them to Samuel Huntington’s third wave. Internal logic of revolutions Our goal is to analyse sources on the Ukrainian revolutions, compare them, and search for more universal mechanisms of revolutions. Among other things, we are examining collective actions and individual strategies, in order to better understand the internal logic of the revolutionary processes in the Ukrainian and international context. Our analysis focuses on the relationship between the old and new (revolutionary) elite and the “ordinary” actors. In addition, we are interested in the behaviour of the new authorities and the building of new social ties and national identities, as well as the disappearance of old authorities. We compare the impact of revolutionary models borrowed from history and the creation of new models. The project methodology mainly relies on collecting testimonies of direct participants of Ukraine’s protests. Oral history is regarded as one of the most adequate methods for researching such social phenomena. In addition, a literature review is being carried out. We envision that the collected material will serve future researchers of Ukrainian affairs who will be further able to analyse different aspects of the three Kyiv-based revolutions. Thus, our hope is to inspire academics around the world to benefit from our findings and gathered primary sources and use them in their own research endeavours. Georges Mink is a sociologist and political scientist. He is a profesor at the College of Europe, Campus Natolin, a senior researcher emeritus with the Institute for Social Sciences of Politics (ISP) at the French Academy of Sciences (CNRS) and the president of International Council for Central and East European Studies (2015 – 2020). He is a member of New Eastern Europe’s editorial board. Paweł Kowal is a post-doctoral fellow at the College of Europe’s Natolin campus. He is a political scientist, historian, essayist and political commentator. Among other things, he works for the Polish Academy of Sciences and the University of Warsaw. In the years 2002 – 2014, he held numerous public offices, was a member of the Polish Parliament and European Parliament, and was Secretary of State at Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is a member of New Eastern Europe’s editorial board.
Once a protester, always a protester KAT E R YNA PR YS H C H E PA
The Ukrainian Revolution on Granite began as a student demonstration in early October 1990. It lasted a little over two weeks and directly involved slightly more than 300 people. Unexpectedly, this little-known student hunger strike turned out to be one of the most remarkable events of the late Soviet period. It set a blueprint for the future revolutions in Ukraine. On October 2nd 1990 a group of students, mostly from Lviv and Kyiv universities, put up tents in the central square of Kyiv. At the time it was still called the Square of the October Revolution, now it is known as Maidan Nezalezhnosti or Maidan for short. The students initiated a hunger protest. Unknowingly they organised the first successful peaceful revolution in the history of post-Soviet Ukraine. They also accidentally established a tradition of Ukrainian tent protests on the square. The protest had three main coordinators – Markiyan Ivashchyshyn (representing Lviv), Oles Doniy (from Kyiv) and Oleg Barkov (a student of Dneprodzerzhinsk Industrial Institute, representing the east of Ukraine). Initially, there were 40 students and they were later joined by many others. When planning the protests, students were aware of the fact they might be arrested. In response, they organised at least five separate groups that were to be sent to Kyiv, one by one, so that if one group was removed, the protest could still continue with the other ones. In just two days around 150 students went on hunger strike. They were accompanied by about 130 other participants who served as their guards, providing logistical and technical support. The protests continued to draw even more people to Kyiv. It included Maria Burmaka – today a well-known Ukrainian singer, and back then a student
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Opinion & Analysis
Once a protester, always a protester, Kateryna Pryshchepa
from Kharkiv – and Vakhtang Kipiani – today a leading journalist, and back then a student of the Mykolaiv Pedagogical Institute. No perestroika, no revolution Until today nobody has really traced back the origins of the hunger strike. Protests point to the Lviv Students Fraternity, who first invited the Ukrainian Students Union of Kyiv to start protesting together. Putting aside organisational matters, it is also believed that protesters were brought together by a desire to change the country. Being young and determined, they sought ways to transfer their energy into action. The students came from many different backgrounds. Had there been no perestroika, there would have been no revolution. Clearly, the protesters wanted to make the best of the changing tide coming from Moscow. They felt the thaw and thought it was the right moment for their voices to be heard. However, trust in perestroika vanished after a series Until now nobody of clashes with authorities and a series of protests in Soviet republics. “Starting with Karabakh in has really traced the different 1988 and later: Sumgaiti, Tbilisi, Uzbekistan, and Vilorigins of the 1990 nius we all saw the authorities could not do anything Kyiv hunger strike. right in the country,” says Kipiani. Inspiration for the young Ukrainians was found in the student demonstrations in Bulgaria and Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Ukrainian students also adopted the tents and headbands as visible form of protest. Not everyone liked the idea of a hunger strike though. “I personally did not support that idea,” says Mykailo Svystovych, one of the participants. “The thing was that the hunger strike is such a hard form of protest that if it did not succeed, it would have been hard to think of some other form of protest,” he concludes. Even though he was not in Kyiv on the first days of the strike, he still soon joined them: “Although I was against the idea, I just could not stay away when my friends and colleagues had risked their lives and freedom.” Svystovych was not alone. Many older activists did not join the hunger strike, although for other reasons. This included the historian (at that time, a doctoral student) Yaroslav Hrytsak and the third chairman of the independent Lviv-based association “Tovarystvo Leva” – an organisation which manned the protest in high numbers. Lev Zakharczyszyn explains why he did not join the protesters: “Unlike my younger colleagues, I did not go to protest in Kyiv. Maybe it was a question of a different approach. For example, groups of older dissidents, those who had just been released from prisons, did not support this movement in the beginning. They