The overall struggle of separatists and
their backers has clear political objectives: to hold local referenda and win
support for secession of a large minority or ideally majority of the regions’
population; either voluntarily or through falsification. The problem is that for
this political struggle the Ukrainian government mobilized merely the military
instrument – the very tool for which its adversaries hold a strong suit. In
fact, the separatists have a clear advantage over Ukrainian forces that have
poor organizational skills and training to deal with a limited scale guerrilla
insurgency embedded with small but boisterous pro-rebel civilian crowds.

This kind of political struggle calls
for total political resistance, not
military engagement.

In the call for total political
resistance the Ukrainian authorities would address two simple but crucial
questions:

1. How can unarmed local populations make the life of
the occupiers in Crimea and separatists in southeast Ukraine difficult?
 

2. How can the social cohesion and solidarity among
Ukrainians be enhanced despite ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity?
 

The call for total political resistance could
thus offer general “tips” or “resistance recommendations” equally to help guide
actions, stimulate people’s imaginations and expand their resourcefulness given
their abilities, skills and risks which they are willing to take. 

The Ukrainian government, together with mainstream
and social media could launch a nationwide campaign of total political
resistance that would recommend specific actions and expected behavior from
Ukrainians at a time of crisis, including:

·        
Do not give out any information to separatists

·        
Ignore separatists’ request for assistance

·        
Do not serve them when they come to buy
groceries, water, medicine or other products or charge them more than usual; or
sell them bad, expired goods

·        
Do not exchange their dollars to local currency
or vice versa

·        
If separatists want to stay in your hotel or home
give them the worst rooms and food. Inform them that restrooms do not work

·        
Protect, offer shelter and extend your solidarity
to Ukrainians, Ukrainian Russians and Ukrainian Jews and other minorities who
are attacked because of their pro-Ukrainian views

·        
Use your balconies and windows to display
Ukrainian flags or Ukrainian national colors

·        
Wear cloths with Ukrainian national colors and
Ukrainian traditional dress

·        
Go to the local Ukrainian churches for collective
prayers

·        
Design, print and distribute thousands of
leaflets and brochures in villages, towns and cities across eastern and
southern Ukraine about what life would be like under Russian occupation  

·        
Engage in pro-Ukrainian graffiti that could mark towns

·        
Paint trees, buildings, and other city landmarks in
Ukrainian colors with difficult-to-remove materials

In Crimea, if you work for a state-owned company
serving the new Russian administration (e.g. postal service, telephone
companies, public administration, railroad administration, etc.):

·        
Work slowly

·        
Do not complete
tasks on time

·        
Complete administrative tasks incompetently and
without much enthusiasm  

·        
Produce and offer poor-quality goods and services

·        
Treat machinery carelessly

·        
Take excessive sick leave

·        
Delay in responding if they call you and operate
with slow reactivity in your professional communications with government
structures

·        
Increase consumption of power to push the power
system to its limits

·        
Do not pay taxes and other government bills

·        
Protect, offer shelter and extend solidarity to
Ukrainians, Ukrainian Russians, Tatars and other minorities who oppose Russian
occupation

·        
Increase the costs of the Russian annexation in
any imaginable way short of violence

For
some, political resistance can be viewed as naïve and weak given the level of
repression. After all, activists are targeted, kidnapped and killed in eastern
Ukraine.

However,
political resistance does not imply that life will not be lost but that the
probability and scale of killings will be still much lower than when the armed
conflicts breaks out. Political resistance is about staying alive as much as
the armed struggle is about killing. And, it is political resistance, not armed
struggle that holds greater promise for saving civilian lives, and preserving
country’s infrastructure while at the same time imposing considerable costs on
the adversary. Finally, it is political resistance that holds greater promise to
awaken those in eastern and southern Ukraine who are now apathetic, fearful and
withdrawn. 

Furthermore,
if armed groups use the language of violence our natural reaction is to use the
language they understand well. However, more effective way would be to develop
a strategy that they either do not understand or for which they lack training.
Political resistance might work better where the current “anti-terrorist
operations” failed – namely, in keeping separatist militia and its Russian
backers off-balance and mobilizing the local population in active though
unarmed opposition.

For
those who look for a military solution against an armed adversary it is appropriate
to recall the words of the British captain
Basil Liddell Hart,
who interrogated German generals after the World War II:  “[Nazi Germans] were experts in violence, and had been trained to deal with opponents who used
that method. But other forms of resistance baffled them- and all the more in
proportion as the methods were subtle and concealed. It was a relief to them
when resistance became violent, and when non-violent forms were mixed with
guerrilla action, thus making it easier to combine drastic suppressive action
against both at the same time.” 

While launching total
political resistance the Ukrainian government together with Ukrainian civil
society would emphasize the message: small triumphs through the acts of
political resistance will prove to you and others that ordinary people: women,
men, elderly, disabled and even children can do things to support the country
and Ukrainians are not defenseless even if they do not have arms. 

Olena Tregub is an occasional contributor to the Kyiv Post. Maciej Bartkowski is the book editor of Recovering Nonviolent History. Civil Resistance in Liberation Struggles and an adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences where he teaches strategic nonviolent resistance. He holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in politics and international relations from Central European University in Budapest and a B.A. degree from American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan. He can be followed on Twitter @macbartkowski, and on his personal blogsite:http://maciejbartkowski.com.