'Central problem and challenge of Ukrainian life now is nationalism' - expert
24 February 2014, 03:21
'The actual central problem and challenge of the Ukrainian life now is not democracy or civic activities, it is nationalism. It is absolutely clear that the last two months brought extremely huge and dangerous mounting of the pure traditional and very aggressive ethnic nationalism which brought a lot of disasters in Europe and in the world in general 100 years ago and 150 years ago,' Mikhail Dmitriyev, Russian historian, Director of the Centre of Ukrainian and Belorussian Studies at Moscow State University, told The Voice of Russia.
What are the main features of the current political situation in Ukraine?
First of all it is important to underline that nobody actually is in position to understand what is going on therefore there is no chance to distinguish between what main feature is and what secondary feature is. The only thing which is more or less out of question is that there are some chaotic tendencies, a great disorder in political and public life. Therefore I will not take a risk to say what the main feature of the current situation is in Ukraine.
How effective are the actions of the Parliament on the first day after the signing of Agreement with Mr. Yanukovich?
I would not say that there is a certain consistency in what is done in Parliament now. I have heard the information from Kiev that allegedly members of the Communist fraction are voting but on the other hand those who are speaking from Kiev are saying that they have no idea about where Communist members of Parliament are. Other information is that even the members of the Party of Region maybe are voting for the new projects of laws, maybe they are not. Today it was announced that the previous law about the status of the Russian language in Ukraine which was moderate, which was not as it was promised by Mr. Yanukovich at the moment of elections, that this law has been revoked and has been denied. It is one of the signs of tensions and a very difficult situation.
Experts used to say that the level of activity of civil society in Ukraine is quite low but nowadays we can see the rise of this activity. From the historical perspective how can we explain this?
There is practically no possibility to link the present day situation with the historical experience. Because first of all we don't know what is going on. Secondly, the very nature of the present day situation is extremely confused.
Such general statements of level of civil activities and its impact on the present day situation is all very current and popular with many people. If you take a serious look at all these statements you will understand that they are not very grounded.
There is no doubt that in principal the political situation in Ukraine over last 20-25 years has been and remains much more unstable than in Russia. In any case, one thing is more or less obvious and recognized by every observer of the Ukrainian situation: it is one level of so called civil activity in the east of Ukraine and it is another level and type of these civil activities in the west of Ukraine.
The actual central problem and challenge of the Ukrainian life now is not democracy or civic activities, it is nationalism. It is absolutely clear that the last two months brought extremely huge and dangerous mounting of the pure traditional and very aggressive ethnic nationalism which brought a lot of disasters in Europe and in the world in general 100 years ago and 150 years ago. In that regard historically speaking what we observe now – Ukraine as well as a great part of Europe, also some very developed countries are moving back somehow in this respect. And in these countries and in Ukraine in particular we observe such extremely dangerous and frightening mergence, development and mounting of specifically ethnic irrational nationalism.
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