Collective statement by experts
on Ukrainian nationalism on the role of far right groups in Ukraine’s
protest movement, and a warning about the Russian imperialism-serving
effects of some supposedly anti-fascist media reports from Kyiv
We are a group of researchers who
comprise specialists in the field of Ukrainian nationalism studies,
and most of the world’s few experts on the post-Soviet Ukrainian
radical right. Some of us publish regularly in peer-reviewed
As a result of our professional
specialization and research experience, we are aware of the problems,
dangers and potential of the involvement of certain right-wing
extremist groupings in the Ukrainian protests. Following years of
intensive study of this topic, we understand better than many other
commentators the risks that its far right participation entails for
the EuroMaidan. Some of our critical comments on nationalist
tendencies have triggered angry responses from ethnocentrists in
Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora living in the West.
While we are critical of far right
activities on the EuroMaidan, we are, nevertheless, disturbed by a
dangerous tendency in too many international media reports dealing
with the recent events in Ukraine. An increasing number of lay
assessments of the Ukrainian protest movement, to one degree or
another, misrepresents the role, salience and impact of Ukraine’s
far right within the protest movement. Numerous reports allege that
the pro-European movement is being infiltrated, driven or taken over
by radically ethnocentrist groups of the lunatic fringe. Some
presentations create the misleading impression that ultra-nationalist
actors and ideas are at the core or helm of the Ukrainian protests.
Graphic pictures, juicy quotes, sweeping comparisons and dark
historical references are in high demand. They are combined with a
disproportionate consideration of one particularly visible, yet
politically minor segment within the confusing mosaic that is formed
by the hundreds of thousands of protesters with their different
motivations, backgrounds and aims.
Both the violent and non-violent
resistance in Kyiv includes representatives from all political camps
as well as non-ideological persons who may have problems locating
themselves politically. Not only the peaceful protesters, but also
those using sticks, stones and even Molotov Cocktails, in their
physical confrontation with police special units and
government-directed thugs, constitute a broad movement that is not
centralized. Most protesters only turned violent in response to
increasing police ferocity and the radicalization of Yanukovych’s
regime. The demonstrators include liberals and conservatives,
socialists and libertarians, nationalists and cosmopolitans,
Christians, non-Christians and atheists.
True, the violent and non-violent
protesters also comprise a variety of radicals of both the far right
and far left. Yet, the movement as a whole merely reflects the entire
Ukrainian population, young and old. The heavy focus on right-wing
radicals in international media reports is, therefore, unwarranted
and misleading. Such an over-representation may have more to do with
the sensationalist potential of extremely ethnonationalistic slogans,
symbols or uniforms than with the actual situation, on the ground.
We even suspect that, in some
semi-journalistic reports, especially those in Kremlin-influenced
mass media, the inordinate attention to far right elements in
Ukraine’s protest movement has nothing to do with anti-fascism.
Paradoxically, the production, biases and dissemination of such
reports may themselves be driven by an imperial form of
ultra-nationalism - in this case, its Russian permutation. By
fundamentally discrediting one of the most impressive mass actions of
civil disobedience in the history of Europe, such reports help to
provide a pretext for Moscow’s political involvement, or, perhaps,
even for a Russian military intervention into Ukraine, like in
Georgia in 2008. (In a revealing blog, Anton Shekhovtsov has recently
detailed the activities of some obviously pro-Kremlin institutions,
connections and authors. See “Pro-Russian
network behind the anti-Ukrainian defamation
campaign” at http://anton-shekhovtsov.blogspot.com/2014/02/pro-russian-network-behind-anti.html.
Probably, there are more of them.)
In light of these threats, we call upon
commentators, especially those on the political left, to be careful
when voicing justified criticism of radical Ukrainian
ethnonationalism. The more alarmist statements on the EuroMaidan are
likely to be used by the Kremlin’s “political technologists”
for the implementation of Putin’s geopolitical projects. By
providing rhetorical ammunition for Moscow’s battle against
Ukrainian independence, such alarmism unintentionally helps a
political force which is a far more serious threat to social justice,
minority rights and political equality than all Ukrainian
ethnocentrists taken together.
We also call upon Western commentators
to show empathy with a nation-state that is very young,
unconsolidated and under a serious foreign threat. The fragile
situation in which Ukraine’s nation still finds itself and the
enormous complications of everyday life in such a transitional
society give birth to a whole variety of odd, destructive and
contradictory opinions, behaviors and discourses. Support for
fundamentalism, ethnocentrism and ultra-nationalism may sometimes
have more to do with the permanent confusion and daily anxieties of
the people living under such conditions than with their deeper
beliefs.
Finally, we call upon all those who
have either no particular interest for, or no deeper knowledge of,
Ukraine to not comment on this region’s complicated national
questions without engaging in some in-depth research. Being
specialists in this field, some of us struggle every day to
adequately interpret the growing political radicalization and
para-militarization of the Ukrainian protest movement. In face of
what can only be called state-terror against Ukraine’s population,
an increasing number of both ordinary Ukrainians and high-brow Kyiv
intellectuals are concluding that, although surely preferable,
non-violent resistance is impractical. Reporters who have the
necessary time, energy and resources should visit Ukraine, or/and do
some serious reading on the issues their articles address. Those who
are unable to do so may want to turn their attention to other, more
familiar, uncomplicated and less ambivalent topics. This should help
to avoid, in the future, the unfortunately numerous clichés, factual
errors, and misinformed opinion that often accompany discussions of
events in Ukraine.
S I G N A T U R E S:
Iryna Bekeshkina, researcher of
political behavior in Ukraine, Sociology Institute of the National
Academy of Sciences, Ukraine
Tetiana Bezruk, researcher of the
far right in Ukraine, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine
Oleksandra Bienert, researcher of
racism and homophobia in Ukraine, PRAVO. Berlin Group for Human
Rights in Ukraine, Germany
Maksym Butkevych, researcher of
xenophobia in post-Soviet Ukraine, “No Borders” Project of the
Social Action Center at Kyiv, Ukraine
Vitaly Chernetsky, researcher of
modern Ukrainian and Russian culture in the context of globalization,
University of Kansas, USA
Marta Dyczok, researcher of
Ukrainian national identity, mass media and historical memory,
Western University, Canada
Kyrylo Galushko, researcher of
Ukrainian and Russian nationalism, Institute of Ukrainian History,
Ukraine
Mridula Ghosh, researcher of human
rights abuses and the far right in Ukraine, East European Development
Institute, Ukraine
Olexiy Haran, researcher of
Ukrainian political parties, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine
John-Paul Himka, researcher of
Ukrainian nationalist participation in the Holocaust, University of
Alberta, Canada
Ola Hnatiuk, researcher of
right-wing tendencies in Ukraine, University of Warsaw, Poland
Yaroslav Hrytsak, researcher of
historic Ukrainian nationalism, Ukrainian Catholic University at
L’viv, Ukraine
Adrian Ivakhiv, researcher of
religio-nationalist groups in post-Soviet Ukraine, University of
Vermont, USA
Valeriy Khmelko, researcher of
ethno-national structures in Ukrainian society, Kyiv International
Institute of Sociology, Ukraine
Vakhtang Kipiani, researcher of
Ukrainian nationalism and samizdat, "Istorychna pravda"
(www.istpravda.com.ua),
Ukraine
Volodymyr Kulyk, researcher of
Ukrainian nationalism, identity and media, Institute of Political and
Ethnic Studies at Kyiv, Ukraine
Natalya Lazar, researcher of the
history of the Holocaust in Ukraine and Romania, Clark University,
USA
Viacheslav Likhachev, researcher of
Ukrainian and Russian xenophobia, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, Israel
Mykhailo Minakov, researcher of
Russian and Ukrainian political modernization, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,
Ukraine
Michael Moser, researcher of
languages and identities in Ukraine, University of Vienna, Austria
Bohdan Nahaylo, researcher of
ethnic tensions in Eastern Europe and the CIS, formerly with UNHCR,
France
Volodymyr Paniotto, researcher of
post-Soviet xenophobia, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology,
Ukraine
Olena Petrenko, researcher of
war-time Ukrainian nationalism, Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany
Anatolii Podolskyi, researcher of
genocide history and antisemitism, Ukrainian Center for Holocaust
Studies at Kyiv, Ukraine
Alina Polyakova, researcher of
radical right movements, University of Bern, Switzerland
Andriy Portnov, researcher of
modern Ukrainian, Polish and Russian nationalism, Humboldt University
of Berlin, Germany
Yuri Radchenko, researcher of
war-time Ukrainian nationalism, Center on Inter-Ethnic Relations in
Eastern Europe at Kharkiv, Ukraine
William Risch, researcher of
Ukrainian nationalist thought and politics, Georgia College, USA
Anton Shekhovtsov, researcher of
West and East European right-wing extremism, University College
London, United Kingdom
Oxana Shevel, researcher of
Ukrainian national identity and historical memory, Tufts University,
USA
Myroslav Shkandrij, researcher of
inter-war Ukrainian radical nationalism, University of Manitoba,
Canada
Konstantin Sigov, researcher of
post-Soviet discourse strategies of the “Other,” Kyiv-Mohyla
Academy, Ukraine
Gerhard Simon, researcher of
contemporary Ukrainian history and nationality affairs, University of
Cologne, Germany
Iosif Sissels, researcher of hate
speech and antisemitism, Association of Jewish Organizations and
Communities (VAAD) at Kyiv, Ukraine
Timothy Snyder, researcher of
historic Ukrainian nationalism, Yale University, USA
Kai Struve, researcher of Ukrainian
radical nationalism and the Holocaust, University of Halle, Germany
Mykhaylo Tyaglyy, researcher of
genocide and antisemitism, Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies at
Kyiv, Ukraine
Andreas Umland, researcher of the
Russian and Ukrainian post-Soviet extreme right, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,
Ukraine
Taras Voznyak, researcher of
Ukrainian intellectual life and nationalism, Magazine “JI”
(L’viv), Ukraine
Oleksandr Zaitsev, researcher of
Ukrainian integral nationalism, Ukrainian Catholic University at
L’viv, Ukraine
Yevgeniy Zakharov, researcher of
xenophobia and hate crimes in today Ukraine, Kharkiv Human Rights
Protection Group, Ukraine
