NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Two years ago, events on Independence Square in Kyiv changed Ukraine, Europe and the West. What started out as a peaceful mass demonstration, the Euro-Maidan, to protest then-President Viktor Yanukovych’s abrupt decision to abandon his promise to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union and to opt instead to join the Eurasian Customs Union promoted by Russia, quickly morphed into a people’s “Revolution of Dignity” to protest government corruption, violence, usurpation of power, human rights abuses and disregard for the will of Ukraine’s citizenry.
To commemorate and analyze this turbulent period of Ukraine’s history, the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale and the Yale World Fellows program hosted the exhibition, “Maidan. Ukraine. Road to Freedom,” in December 2015.
Curated by Serhiy Fomenko of Kyiv and previously presented in Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Washington and New York City, it included the works of Maidan participants: artists, musicians, filmmakers, photographers, journalists and writers, who documented their individual and unique view of the Maidan events. The exhibit had been recently updated to include photographs, art and artifacts from the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) in the Donbas. The exhibit at Yale was viewed by hundreds of students, faculty and visitors.
An opening reception for the exhibition, held on December 3, 2015, included a panel discussion with Marci Shore, associate professor of history at Yale; Stathis Kalyvas, the Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science at Yale; Timothy Snyder, Bird White Housum Professor of History at Yale; and Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, activist, singer and 2015 Yale World Fellow. It also featured a live performance by Serhiy “Foma” Fomenko, exhibit curator and founder of the Ukrainian folk-rock blues band Mandry.
Panel discussion
Opening remarks and introductions for the panel were made by James Levinsohn, director of the Jackson Institute of Global Affairs and the Yale World Fellows Program. He noted that enough time has passed to allow a preliminary assessment of the Maidan events and their impact on the current and future development of Ukraine’s civic society.
The first panelist and moderator was Mr. Vakarchuk, who along with his band Okean Elzy was an active Maidan participant. He spoke emotionally of how events on the Maidan changed him and millions of others throughout Ukraine.
Prof. Timothy Snyder (center) with exhibit organizer Tamara Shevchenko and exhibit curator Serhiy Fomenko.
When he saw students being beaten by the militia and laws being passed by the Verkhovna Rada restricting public demonstrations and free speech, Mr. Vakarchuk said he quickly realized that the Maidan could not remain simply a political protest against moving back to Russia’s sphere of influence. In his view, it had to become something much bigger, a movement against suppression – a struggle for Ukraine’s freedom and democratic future, a Revolution of Dignity.
He recalled several critical moments during the escalating conflicts. In late December 2013, when the authorities were planning to take down the main stage on Independence Square, Mr. Vakarchuk rushed with his band to occupy the stage the next day and to play an all-day concert. He personally invited nearby anti-Maidan protesters organized by President Yanukovych to attend. This unifying gesture temporarily diffused tensions.
Later, with the tragic assassinations of the Heavenly Brigade in February 2015, he realized that his own personal reluctance to engage politically in direct opposition to the government was being supplanted by a higher calling – the need to stand up for justice for his people and to defend their basic human rights.
The next speaker was Prof. Marci Shore, who teaches European cultural and intellectual history with a focus on Eastern Europe. She is completing a manuscript on the Maidan people’s movement. During the events on the Maidan, she was in Vienna and from there closely followed events in real time via social media with her extensive contacts throughout Eastern Europe. She recalled seeing growing engagement through posts in her Facebook feed, ending with calls to action and slogans such as “likes do not count.” She saw concrete decisive action being called for, as support and resolve grew and people felt their own power.
Prof. Shore said she saw that the Ukrainian militia’s tactics of beatings, kidnappings and intimidation were backfiring. Instead of mothers pulling back their student protesters, they came out to join and help them. People from all walks of life were filming, exchanging selfies, asserting their own presence, telling their own story. A young medic tweeted her own death: “I am dying!” Young students were almost euphoric in documenting their participation.
People were publicly making a choice and taking a stand in a coming together of faiths, generations and political leanings. The Euro-Maidan was transformed into a revolt against the arbitrariness of the authorities in defense of the rights of the common citizen, Prof. Shore pointed out.
Prof. Kalyvas, an expert on civil conflict, has written extensively on the logic of violence in civil war. Commenting on the Maidan, he noted that it was unusual for mass protests alone to bring down a government. Normally, according to him, a composite of multiple steps and time is needed to effect meaningful change: strikes, civil disobedience, resistance to intimidation, personal transformation of the population on a mass scale. In this respect the Maidan was unique, although its long-term impact cannot yet be comprehensively assessed, he added.
Prof. Snyder stressed that, as a historian, he understands that leaders can make mistakes. In his view, Vladimir Putin miscalculated in Ukraine, starting with the pressure, both financial and political, to force Ukraine under President Yanukovych to return to the Russian fold. Then, with the forcible annexation of Crimea and intrusion into southeastern Ukraine, Mr. Putin alienated the West and most of the rest of the world. Prof. Snyder noted that, in the longer term, Russia would be better off balancing between the EU and China. Now it is cut off from Europe and is being treated as a pariah state.
Serhiy Fomenko performs the Maidan anthem “Ne Spy Moya Ridna Zemlya” during the reception.
According to Prof. Snyder, Mr. Putin’s increasing authoritarianism in Russia is also not playing out well for the Russian people. In one example, while comparing Russia to Ukraine, he commented on the existing state of oligarchic pluralism in Ukraine’s mass media, where major outlets are controlled by wealthy businessmen or politicians. Though currently limited, this pluralism of expression is being supplemented via social media by a growing Ukrainian civil society, albeit one with a long way to go. In Russia, by contrast, there is a total government monopoly on information and freedom of expression. As a result, responsible Russian journalists have been relocating to Ukraine in order to more freely practice their profession.
Following the panel, Mr. Fomenko gave a moving musical performance. As curator of the exhibit, he had traveled from Kyiv for the opening of the exhibit. To great acclaim, he played the popular Maidan anthem “Ne Spy Moya Ridna Zemlia” along with a heartfelt rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem. Asked afterwards about his impressions of the evening, he remarked that he was honored to be at Yale and especially to have the opportunity to perform the Ukrainian anthem for the distinguished guests in attendance.
The exhibit was brought to Yale through the efforts of Tamara Shevchenko and Orest Kyzyk. Local facilitators in New Haven included Mr. Vakarchuk, Myron Melnyk, Jerry Lodynsky and Carl Harvey.
The exhibit was funded through the generous support of the Chopivsky Family Foundation, the American Center for a European Ukraine, the DAR Foundation (Ukraine) and the SUMA Ukrainian Federal Credit Union in Yonkers, N.Y.