One of the main challenges for a newly independent state is to foster a sense of what it means to be a citizen of that country.
Twenty years after Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union, its 46 million inhabitants remain deeply divided on many issues, unclear about who they are and where they are heading as the nation, filled with mixed feelings about the past and pessimism about the future.
Few, however, question the fact that they are Ukrainian.
In a poll conducted by the Research & Branding Group in August, 93 percent of respondents said they consider Ukraine as their homeland.
The territory of modern Ukraine is formed from parts of two empires that clashed in World War I – the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian.
Parts of what is today Ukraine, such as Zakarpattya, came under Soviet rule in 1945 after the Red Army pushed out the Nazis in World War II. The Crimean peninsula was made part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954, the final piece in the jigsaw of the country that gained independence in 1991.
That territory brought together ethnic Ukrainians with Russians, Crimean Tatars, Bulgarians and Hungarians, among others.
The complicated ethnic and geographical mix of Ukraine, topped off with a controversial history of wars, repressions and occupation by its neighbors, has provided rich fodder for politicians to try to mobilize citizens to vote in elections, often exacerbating rifts.
The diversity of the population and the process of forming the state have led to years of debate, often controversially intertwined with politics, about what it means to be Ukrainian.
The complicated ethnic and geographical mix of Ukraine, topped off with a controversial history of wars, repressions and occupation by its neighbors, has provided rich fodder for politicians to try to mobilize citizens to vote in elections, often exacerbating rifts.
Former President Viktor Yushchenko, who held office from 2005 to 2010, was the most vocal leader to call for the country to consolidate around events and causes in Ukrainian history. His views often set him on a collision course with supporters of the Soviet version of the country’s history.
Yushchenko raised the issue of Holodomor, the famine in Ukraine in 1932-3 seen by many domestic historians as genocide carried out on orders from Moscow; he also awarded Stepan Bandera, a nationalist leader whose Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists fought Nazis and Soviets during and after World War II, the title of Hero of Ukraine.
Since President Viktor Yanukovych took office, the award has been removed by a court in Donetsk, where Bandera is largely seen as a fascist collaborator.
Reflecting these differences, Ukrainians are split almost in half over where the nation should be heading politically.
According to a recent survey by the Research & Branding pollster that has worked closely over the years with Yanukovych’s Moscow-friendly Party of Regions, 51 percent of Ukrainians favor joining the European Union, as much as 47 percent want closer relations with Russia and Belarus, while 37 percent want both.
Other polls show different results, such as stronger support for European integration, less for closer relations with Russia. However, some experts say that, perhaps paradoxically, the constant debate about where the country’s past and future might be is what brings people together as a nation.
“Ukrainians are united much more then they realize. Bilingualism unites us, as every Ukrainian knows both Ukrainian and Russian. The constant discussion about history, Bandera, languages and where we should be going is what brings us together. So do common problems – economic, political and social troubles,” said Oles Buzyna, a controversial historian and author whose views are often criticized by Ukrainian nationalists.
The oppression narrative runs thick through Ukraine’s history – from Polish overlords to Soviet masters in Moscow.
It continues today, with more than 80 percent of respondents in a Research & Branding Group poll saying their life has got worse since independence, and other polls blaming politicians, businessmen and criminals for their negative influence over citizens’ lives.
With around half of countries economy in shadow, Ukraine is also one of the most corrupt countries in the world, occupying 134rd place of 178 countries, according to Transparency International in 2010.
If common problems unite the nation, there seems a lot to be united over in Ukraine, as polls show how many Ukrainians are disappointed about the present and pessimistic about the future.
According to a recent Institute of Sociology poll, the majority of Ukrainians (57 percent) think that things in Ukraine are moving in the wrong direction.
Thirteen percent say that things are not moving at all and only 13 percent were optimistic.
With around half of countries economy in shadow, Ukraine is also one of the most corrupt countries in the world, occupying 134rd place of 178 countries, according to Transparency International in 2010.
With corruption, collapsing infrastructure, poor social benefits, substandard healthcare and so much more in desperate need of fixing, experts say that only pragmatism can now become a new national idea for Ukraine, rather than the mantras of a glorious past and rich culture promoted by Yushchenko.
“Ukrainians were always united by ideas: the idea of resisting foreign attacks, uniting left and right banks of Dnipro River. Now it seems that the idea uniting most of the nation is to survive and provide for one’s family,” said religion expert Ludmyla Filipovych.
Apart from much needed economic reforms, Ukrainians, as a young nation of only 20 years, also have a lot of learn, experts say.
“Because virtually all parts of Ukraine were under empires, a permanent lack of freedoms, including personal freedom, is rooted deeply in people consciousness,” said Lubomyr Husar, archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. He added that history of oppression made Ukrainians afraid of freedom because it brings responsibility for their own future which they never had.
“We are the people who are still leaning to be free, to have pride and to respect other people’s dignity,” Huzar said.
Historian Buzyna added that growing must result in the formation of a new national elite.
“As parts of empires, all modern parts of Ukraine were providing leaders and elites for centers of empires. Most educated people from Ukraine went to Moscow, Vienna, Bucharest and elsewhere. Brought together as a country now, we lack a national elite and lack Ukrainian ideology which they should have created,” he said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected].
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