Ukraine's Path to Freedom: Reflections in Times of War (original) (raw)

The perpetual motion of Ukrainian independence

The Curse of Empire and the Russian Lie. Russia and Ukraine in Context, 2022

The chapter is focused on more than thirty years of Ukrainian independence, since its declaration in 1991. A comprehensive view linking history, politics, society, economy, technology, military and culture. The text critically highlights the consequences of corruption and deindustrialization of the Ukrainian economy. On the other hand, it highlights the role of civil society, which is able to substitute in many ways for the poorly functioning state, including the country's military defence. And it points out that the growing Russian pressure, which resulted in open aggression in February 2022, is unintentionally contributing to the strengthening of Ukrainian national consciousness and identity.

Ukraine's struggle for independence and self-determination

The principal of upholding national independence and self-determination has a long history in socialist thought. It starts with Marx and Engels, Lenin and the Comintern, and has consistently been a major aspect of Chinese foreign policy. The development of socialist thinking on this subject is important to review in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Helping to guide us in the current circumstance is Mao's essential work on distinguishing between principal and secondary contradictions. This puts into focus the balance between NATO's eastward expansion and the Russian war against the Ukrainian people.

UKRAINE TWENTY YEARS AFTER INDEPENDENCE ASSESSMENTS, PERSPECTIVES, CHALLENGES

2015

This book is devoted to the first 22 years of independent Ukraine. The papers were written before november 2013, they reflect the situation and the opinions of the authors of the Yanukovych era, before Majdan. The events of 2013–2014 indicate that in the 23 years of independence (1991–2013) deep changes occurred in Ukrainian society. The fluidity of the situation condemns any answer to remain tentative and to be contradicted by the facts of the next day.

One Hundred Years of the Ukrainian Liberation Struggle

Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal

To understand historical processes, it is not nearly enough to take into account only objective distant social, political, and economic factors. We also need to pay attention to different wellestablished traditions, stereotypes and existing myths-archetypes, which unavoidably accompany and fill historical memory. Later, some of them are legalized by historiography or, better to say, by different conflicting historiographies. Such an unwritten tradition helps to understand social phenomena which came from somewhere and just exist by outlining dramatic differences of contemporary Ukrainian political culture, as opposed to a number of post-Soviet countries, in particular, Russia. It is especially interesting considering the global importance of the events happening in contemporary Ukraine. During World War I, Ukrainians were trying to create their independent state, as well as to fit it into the geopolitical context of that time. The defeat of the Liberation Struggle and all of Ukrainian history up to the collapse of the Soviet Union until today make us take a close look at historically remote events.

Reflections on the Ukrainian question -a war foretold

These reflections will focus on two main aspects, one is the continuity of Russian doctrine and historical policy from the late fifteenth century to the present days; the other a composition of place with a perspective to understand the territorial scenario in which the war takes place. These two approaches or perspectives permanently intersect in the chronological line, giving rise to influences and feedback that make the analysis complex, projected from the past to understand the present. Starting from the most recent events, references will be made to various historical moments, further away or closer, in order to string together the genesis of the events and unravel the underlying motives, and which account for the movements of Russia in the 21st century, in continuity with its postulates and doctrine since the XV century. The historical review is conducive in these circumstances in order to recompose the truth that has been distorted by the tsarist and Bolshevik versions, and that persist to this day, obscuring the understanding of events.

Historical Evolution of Ukraine and its Post- Communist Challenges

Revista de Științe Politice. Revue des Sciences Politiques, 2018

The current borders of Ukraine arose during the Soviet ruling of the country, different regions were incorporated into their territory from the 20s to the 50s of the last century due to the annexations and territorial transfers, that were made by the different leaders of Moscow. Thus, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine achieved independence with a territorial extension that reaches all regions inhabited mostly by ethnically Ukrainian population. At the moment of independence most of its citizens put their regional problems aside to show themselves as a united country and so that Ukraine achieves international recognition as a new independent State. However, as time goes by the disagreements have resurfaced, which shows that these tensions continued existing although they seemed hidden for years. We need to keep in mind that to understand all these issues it is necessary to analyze how the historical evolution of the Ukrainian territory has been, yet it is not only about climatic differences or economic issues. For this reason, this paper aims to study the differences that have historically existed in Ukraine. These differences were caused by territories that once were part of other powers and now are integrated in Ukraine and by the influences received by external actors. It should be considered that most of the current conflicts come from there. Therefore, this contribution intends to show how, from the historical formation of the Ukrainian territory, the conflicts are taking place in the Slavic country. To carry out this study we will focus on a historical reconstruction of the national question.

From "the Ukraine" to Ukraine. A Contemporary History 1991 2021 short

Stuttgrat: ibidem Verlag, 2021

In this book, we aim to present the contemporary history of the people of Ukraine. Ukrainians deserve a contemporary history that follows their own expression not only through politics but also in private entrepreneurship, art, religion, and self-imagination. Ac- cordingly, the chapters that follow cover thirty years of Ukraine’s development in the fields of politics, economics, energy, society, media, contemporary art, religion, national identity, and democ- racy. One of our major tasks was to find a meeting point for the per- spectives of Ukrainian and Western scholars on this three-decade story of contemporary Ukraine. For this reason, each chapter was co-written by authors from Western and Ukrainian universities and research institutions in what was often a time-consuming and com- plex interaction. Additionally, each chapter was written in an at- tempt to blend academic depth and rigor with accessibility to a wider, not only academic, readership. We hope that readers will agree that the result was worth the effort.