Ukraine’s Far Right Today: Continuing Electoral Impotence and Growing Uncivil Society (original) (raw)
The Ukrainian Far Right and the Ukrainian Revolution
New Europe College Black Sea Link Program Yearbook 2014-2015, 2015
The article discusses two far right movements that took part in the Ukrainian revolution in 2014. The author argues that, although the fact of the involvement of the far right in the revolution cannot be denied, the Russian media deliberately exaggerated this involvement to discredit the opposition to former President Viktor Yanukovych. Thus, the articles provides a more nuanced picture of the Ukrainian far right before, during and immediately after the revolution. This research draws on the interviews conducted by the author, video and photographic evidence, online and offline publications, results of public opinion polls, and secondary literature on the Ukrainian far right.
The Creeping Resurgence of the Ukrainian Radical Right? The Case of the Freedom Party
In the context of the rise of radical right-wing parties in most European countries, the enduring absence of a far-right group in the Ukrainian parliament seems paradoxical. However, recent developments, namely the victory of the far-right ‘Freedom’ Party (All-Ukrainian Union ‘Freedom’, Vseukrayins’ke ob’’ednannya ‘Svoboda’) in the 2009 Ternopil regional elections seems to attest to the gradual revival of the radical right in Ukraine. The article considers the far-right legacy in Ukraine and the reasons why it failed in the post-Soviet period, and then focuses on the history of the Freedom Party and discusses its prospects at the national level.
International Policy Analysis ISBN 978-3-86498-325-2, 2012
The major political forces in Ukraine do not have a well-articulated ideology. An analysis of the gradual emergence of the Svoboda (Freedom) party into the political mainstream since 2001 and as a contender in the October 2012 parliamentary elections reveals that this party is the flagship of core extreme right ideology.
Far-right Extremism as a Threat to Ukrainian Democracy
Human Rights Documents Online
Photo by Aleksandr Volchanskiy Vyacheslav Likhachev Kyiv-based expert on right-wing groups in Ukraine and Russia • Far-right political forces present a real threat to the democratic development of Ukrainian society. This brief seeks to provide an overview of the nature and extent of their activities, without overstating the threat they pose. To this end, the brief differentiates between radical groups, which by and large express their ideas through peaceful participation in democratic processes, and extremist groups, which use physical violence as a means to influence society. • For the first 20 years of Ukrainian independence, far-right groups had been undisputedly marginal elements in society. But over the last few years, the situation has changed. After Ukraine' s 2014 Euromaidan Revolution and Russia' s subsequent aggression, extreme nationalist views and groups, along with their preachers and propagandists, have been granted significant legitimacy by the wider society. • Nevertheless, current polling data indicates that the far right has no real chance of being elected in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in 2019. Similarly, despite the fact that several of these groups have real life combat experience, paramilitary structures, and even access to arms, they are not ready or able to challenge the state. • Extremist groups are, however, aggressively trying to impose their agenda on Ukrainian society, including by using force against those with opposite political and cultural views. They are a real physical threat to left-wing, feminist, liberal, and LGBT activists, human rights defenders, as well as ethnic and religious minorities. • In the last few months, extremist groups have become increasingly active. The most disturbing element of their recent show of force is that so far it has gone fully unpunished by the authorities. Their activities challenge the legitimacy of the state, undermine its democratic institutions, and discredit the country' s law enforcement agencies. • Given the increasingly worrying situation, Ukrainian society, law enforcement agencies, and other state bodies as well as the international community should take effective measures to counter far-right extremism in Ukraine.
From the provinces to the parliament: How the Ukrainian radical right mobilized in Galicia
This article traces the on-the-ground mobilization and recruitment strategies of Ukraine's radical right party, Svoboda (Freedom) in the years prior to its 2012 electoral breakthrough. Ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews with Svoboda party leaders and activists in Galicia show how party leaders strategically created an organizational structure aimed at recruiting young people, making linkages with pre-existing nationalist groups, and shifting the ideological focus away from cultural and toward economic issues. Interviews with party activists reveal how personal networks were key in the recruitment and radicalization process, showing that radical right activists were radicalized, or "made," through political participation. Consequently, Svoboda's organizational capacity allowed the party to take advantage of a political opportunity e Yanukovych's unpopularity and weakened national democratic parties e in the 2012 parliamentary elections.
The Far Right, the Euromaidan, and the Maidan Massacre in Ukraine
2020
This study examines the role of the far right in the Euromaidan in Ukraine, primarily in the Maidan massacre and other key cases of violence. The involvement of far-right organizations in these crucial events in the Ukrainian and world politics has been politicized and polarized in Ukraine, the West, and Russia. This study analyzes various data sources, such as online live streams and TV broadcasts, videos, broadcasts of the Maidan massacre trials, the database of court decisions in Ukraine, media reports, and field research on the Maidan. The findings reveal that radical nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations had significant but minority representation among the Maidan leadership and protesters. However, the analysis shows that the far-right organizations and football ultras played a key role in political violence such as attempting to seize the presidential administration and the parliament. It reveals involvement of the Right Sector in violent clashes with the Berkut special police force during the highly publicized dispersal of Maidan protesters on November 30, 2013. The Right Sector and Svoboda had crucial roles in the violent overthrow of the Yanukovych government, in particular, in the Maidan massacre of the protesters and the police.
Contradictions of Post Soviet Ukraine and Failure of Ukraines New Left
LeftEast, 2020
Ukraine ended the 1980s as one of the most advanced parts of the Soviet super-power with a developed machine-building industry. Thirty years later, Ukraine’s major economic indicators are on a par with many Third World countries. The country is fundamentally dependent on the financial, political, and military support of the West, with politics dominated by a handful of powerful oligarchs, right-wing paramilitaries regularly marching on the streets, and a part of the country annexed by neighboring Russia and another part torn through by the frontline. It can rightfully be called the northernmost country of the Global South. Moreover, there is not any relevant political force with a vision of alternative progressive national development. Several profound contradictions have defined the dynamics of Ukrainian economy, politics and society since the collapse of the Soviet Union: the contradiction between transnational and local capital, those between factions of the local capital, Ukrainian national identity contradictions, geopolitical contradictions with Russia, the US, and EU, and contradictions between civil society, the active public, and Ukrainian society at large. I will first expose them, and then discuss how the Ukrainian new left has been failing to respond to these contradictions with a project for Ukraine’s alternative development.
Communist Party of Ukraine (Chapter in The Palgrave Handbook of Radical Left Parties in Europe)
The Palgrave Handbook of Radical Left Parties in Europe, 2023
This chapter analyses how the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU), a communist successor party that was re-established in 1993, lost its place as the most popular party in the first decade of Ukrainian independence to become repressed and marginalised. The chapter shows how the KPU was gradually turning into a political ally of the oligarchic Party of Regions and suffered from repression after the Euromaidan revolution in 2014. It shows that the KPU failed to build more democratic and participatory structures as it failed to institutionalise internal opposition and regularly expelled dissenting radicals. It explains how young KPU members and voters had a lower commitment to the party, while the core Communist supporters were ageing. The chapter also demonstrates how the KPU failed to develop linkages to civil society but instead promoted weak front groups. Many militant communists joined the pro-Russian separatist uprising in Eastern Ukraine. The irremovable leadership that has been personally benefiting for more than 20 years from what was once the largest party in the country chose to keep a low profile. This all explains why the KPU failed to resist against terminal threats to its existence after the Euromaidan victory. Cite as: Ishchenko, V. (2023). Ukraine. In: Escalona, F., Keith, D., March, L. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Radical Left Parties in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. Pp. 665-692. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56264-7\_23
Nationalist Radicalization Trends in Post-Euromaidan Ukraine
PONARS Eurasia, 2018
Ukraine today faces a vicious circle of nationalist radicalization involving mutual reinforcement between far-right groups and the dominant oligarchic pyramids. This has significantly contributed to a post-Euromaidan domestic politics that is not unifying the country but creating divisiveness and damaging Ukrainian relations with its strategically important neighbors. The lack of a clear institutionalized political and ideological boundary between liberal and far-right forces lends legitimacy to the radical nationalist agenda. Moreover, the oligarchic groups exploit radicalizing nationalism not out of any shared ideology but because it threatens their interests less than the liberal reformers. Local deterrents are insufficient to counter the radicalizing trend; Ukraine's far right vastly surpasses liberal parties and NGOs in terms of mobilization and organizational strength. Western pressure is needed on influential Ukrainian figures and political parties in order to help shift Ukraine away from this self-destructive development.