Timothy Snyder, The Making of Modern Ukraine, Lecture #20: Maidan and Self-Understanding”
This lecture was given by Marci Shore, a professor at Yale, where she teaches European cultural and intellectual history. Before joining Yale’s history department, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University‘s Harriman Institute; an assistant professor of history and Jewish studies at Indiana University; and Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Visiting Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies at Yale. She is the author of The Taste of Ashes: The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe (Crown, 2013), Caviar and Ashes: A Warsaw Generation’s Life and Death in Marxism, 1918–1968 (Yale University Press, 2006) and the translator of Michal Glowinski‘s Holocaust memoir The Black Seasons (Northwestern University Press, 2005). Her newest book is titled The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution.
I found this lecture to be particularly engrossing. Ukraine’s post-USSR history — which includes major changes in government, corruption scandals, several revolts, and a revolution — is difficult to sort out. After watching Shore’s lecture, I now feel I have a handle on the Revolution of Dignity, as well as a grasp of the long tortuous road that led to Zelensky’s becoming president.
As always, my summaries are meant to be a guide, rather than a substitution for these enlightening lectures. I especially encourage you to listen to this one.
I’ve just finished watching the 20th lecture for Timothy Snyder’s course, The Making of Modern Ukraine. This lecture, entitled “Maidan and Self-Understanding” was given by Marci Shore, an associate professor at Yale specializing in European cultural and intellectual history. Marci Shore’s topic launched us firmly into contemporary history, with direct relevance to events unfolding in Ukraine today. But first, she gave us a bit of background.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, it took the world by surprise. But, as Shore so succinctly stated, “The thing that seems impossible appears, in retrospect, inevitable.” This is a lesson for history, because the Soviet Union was not just the largest project in social engineering that the world has ever known, it was an attempt to re-make human beings into a form amenable to Soviet culture, economy, and society.
The failure of the Soviet project meant that the 1990s were brutal in eastern Europe as countries struggled to understand the “utopian capitalist package.” In reality, there was no utopian capitalist package, just a free-for-all mired in corruption and blackmail after the rules these countries had followed for decades simply disappeared. In the absence of rules — any rules at all — the “robber barons” took control.
After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, it experienced its fair share of robber barons. The first two presidents were holdovers from the Soviet era, which ran on covert larceny. But then came Viktor Yanukovych, an outright gangster whose mission was overt self-enrichment, and who assassinated his critics and falsified election results to remain in power.
After Yanukovych attempted to assassinate his opponent, Viktor Yushchenko, in 2004, Ukrainians had had enough. They elected Yushchenko, and then, when Yanukovych falsified the election results, they took to the streets. Within a few days, Yanukovych was ousted and replaced by Yushchenko.
Unfortunately, Yushchenko’s promise to bring Ukraine closer to the European Union was not realized, and Ukrainians voted Yanukovych back into the presidency in 2010 (after he underwent PR “makeover” by Paul Manafort). Yanukovych promised to fulfill Yushchenko’s promise of closer ties to Europe. But Yanukovych was not only a gangster, he was Putin’s man. So, at the eleventh hour, right before an agreement was to be signed with the European Union, Yanukovych backed down. (Reputedly, after being pressured by Putin.)
Ukrainian students took to the streets again, occupying the central square of Kyiv, the Maidan. “Urkaine is Europe” they chanted. They called themselves Euromaidan.
Like previous protests, the occupation of the Maidan — this time by only a few hundred students — was peaceful. But then, in a show of force, Yanukovych set the riot police on the students, who were brutally beaten. This was the first use of mass violence in independent Ukraine, and Yanukovych was counting on the shock of the beatings to alarm the parents of the students, pressuring them to halt the protest. Instead, the parents joined the students. “We will not permit you to beat our children,” they said.
Soon, hundreds of thousands of people had joined the student protesters. At this point, Euromaidan simply became Maidan, The Revolution of Dignity. It was a revolt against arbitrary tyranny, and against the reduction of people to “things.” After two months of occupying the Maidan during Ukraine’s cold, cold winter — an occupation which was “masterpiece of self-organization,” including kitchens to feed the protesters, a clinic, a library, and a stage for performances— Yanukovych upped the ante. The Revolution of Dignity was attracting sympathetic international attention, because the protesters had set up cameras around the Maidan and were live-steaming the whole thing.
Yanukovych, in true gangster style, simply shot them. He positioned snipers on the surrounding buildings, and ordered them to fire. The world saw the massacre in real time, right as it happened. The response was overwhelming, and Yanukovych was forced to flee to Russia, into the arms of his friend, Putin.
This was the year 2014. Ukraine was in chaos, and Putin took advantage of that chaos to begin his invasion of Ukraine, starting with Crimea. Putin’s propaganda was that “ethnic Russians” were being oppressed in Crimea. In reality, he was merely capitalizing on Ukraine’s political lacuna, caused in no small part by Putin himself. (This is a good example of opportunism in imperial expansion.)
As Marci Shore spoke about the Revolution of Dignity, she attempted to maintain an analytical perspective, but not always successfully. She had known the protesters, and had watched their slaughter in real time from Vienna. She had a catch in her voice when she said that one of the student protesters she knew in Ukraine had been killed defending his country from Putin’s invasion. The heartfelt emotion expressed by Shore did not detract from her presentation but enhanced it. “Something happens during a revolution,” she said. “The experience of time changes. The past disappears, and the only thing that matters is the present.” The present for Ukraine is a continuation of the Revolution of Dignity. They are still proclaiming that they are people, not things.
You can watch the 20th lecture for The Making of Modern Ukraine here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg_CLI3xY58
The syllabus for the course is here: https://snyder.substack.com/p/syllabus-of-my-ukraine-lecture-class
You can watch all of Timothy Snyder’s lectures for The Making of Modern Ukraine here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9mgdi4rNewfxO7LhBoz_1Mx1MaO6sw_
You can read my summaries of his lectures here: https://ericaverr.medium.com/
Erica Verrillo is the author of the Phoenix Rising Trilogy (Random House). Her short work has appeared in over a dozen publications. She is also the author of the definitive reference guide for treating myalgic encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Treatment Guide, now in its second edition (first edition, St. Martin’s). She holds degrees from Tufts University (BA — History) and Syracuse University (MA — Linguistics) as well as doctoral work in Linguistics, Anthropology, and Speech Communication. Her professional life includes: Spanish language editor for the journal Mesoamerica, linguistics instructor (Dartmouth), Spanish and ESL instructor (Syracuse University), classical musician (Oxford Symphony Orchestra), Mayan linguist (SUNY Albany), and director of a non-profit NGO for Mayan refugees. She is the president of the American Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to to serving the needs of patients and caregivers through support, advocacy, and education. Her writing blog, Publishing … and Other Forms of Insanity, has received nearly 8 million page views. You are welcome to visit.
