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Intellectuals in Times of Troubles: Between Empowerment and Disenchantment During the Orange Revolution and Euromaidan

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Traitors, Collaborators and Deserters in Contemporary European Politics of Memory

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies ((PMMS))

Abstract

Yuliya Yurchuk and Alla Marchenko present an analysis of intellectuals’ narratives on betrayal in the most transformative period of recent Ukrainian history—the Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan protests. While it was observed that after both these revolutions the people’s attitudes oscillated between two polarities of great expectations and great disillusionments, the authors analyze the narratives of betrayal through the concept of disenchantment. The analysis shows that disenchantment can be an empowering device, which serves as a push for the search for internal powers and capabilities. At the same time, the authors also observed that some groups of Ukrainian people were dismissed by intellectuals as betrayers or not sufficiently capable of acting in accordance with intellectual ideals.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    When we speak about polarization we mean first and foremost the polarization in interpretations and evaluation of the events and politics, but such interpretational polarization does not exclude that fact that in many aspects Ukrainian society became more solidified as demonstrated by a range of voluntary projects which rose from civil society initiatives or separate individuals’ goodwill (see Willson 2014).

  2. 2.

    Available at http://edpol.org/special/zradameter/.

  3. 3.

    Suffice to find the hashtags in social media #зрада or#перемога to understand the mass character of this phenomenon.

  4. 4.

    We took available Facebook blogs of mentioned intellectuals (Oksana Zabuzhko, see https://www.facebook.com/oksana.zabuzhko and Yaroslav Hrytsak, see https://www.facebook.com/yaroslav.hrytsak) and their articles published during the period selected for analysis in Krytyka (krytyka.com) and Zahid (zahid.net) as influential media sources.

  5. 5.

    They actively participated in Euromaidan activities, initiative group of intellectuals “Pershogo Grudnya” (“December the first”) created in 2011 formed a letter-appeal to Ukrainians with the main message at the beginning of mass Euromaidan protests: “Don’t be afraid!” [to fight for your rights—A.M., Y.Y]; see http://1-12.org.ua/2013/12/06/2579.

  6. 6.

    The Dreyfus affair was connected with a political scandal in France. Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian and Jewish descent, was convicted for treason. The case divided France deeply into two poles from 1894 to 1906 and involved many intellectuals. One of the most famous intellectuals involved became Emile Zola, who published an open letter to the French President Felix Faure “ J ’ accuse …! ” (I blame…!) on the front page of the Paris newspaper L ’ Aurore.

  7. 7.

    See e.g. on the meaning of Katyń in Poland: Etkind Aleksandr, Finin Rory et al. (2012) Cambridge: Polity Press. Rory et al. Remembering Katyneas proposed by the intellectuals r e sments similar disillusioned attitu.

  8. 8.

    The term Executed Renaissance (Rozstrilyane vidrodzhennya, in Ukrainian) is used to describe the execution of the whole generation of Ukrainian writers and artists in 1920s and early 1930s. The term was coined by Jerzy Giedroyc, a Polish publicist, in his letter to Ukrainian literature scholar Yuriy Lavrinenko who later used it for the title of the collection of literary works of that generation (namely, Mykola Khvylovy, Valerian Pidmohylny, Mykola Kulish, Mykhailo Semenko, Les Kurbas and Mykola Zerov).

  9. 9.

    On the place of Taras Shevchenko in the collective memory of Ukrainians see: Zabuzhko, Oksana. Shevchenkiv mif Ukraiiny. Kyiv: Abrys, 1997; Alwart, Jenny Marietta. Mit Taras Ševčenko Staat machen? Erinnerungskulturelle Kontroversen um die Dichtergestalt in Literatur und Kunst der spat- und postsowjetischen Ukraine. Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doctor philosophiae Dr. Phil. Vorgelegt. Leipzig: Universität Leipzig, 2010; on Ivan Franko see: Hrytsak, Yaroslav. Dukh shcho tilo rve do boju, Sproby politychnoho portretu Ivana Franka (1856–1916). L’viv: Svit, 1990; Zabuzhko, Oksana. Hroniky vid Fontibrasa. Vybrana eseistyka 90-h. Kyiv: Fakt, 1999.

  10. 10.

    For instance, selection of Vasyl Rasevych’s texts on this topic may be found at: http://zaxid.net/news/showNews.do?zvaltuvannya_porosiyski&objectId=1380795, Taras Vozniak’sat http://zaxid.net/news/showList.do?taras_voznyak&tagId=50447. Examples by other mentioned intellectuals will ne given later in this text.

  11. 11.

    This term was initially used by several politicians such as Arseniy Yatsenyuk (http://zno.academia.in.ua/mod/book/view.php?id=3350), Yuri Syrotyuk (http://infokava.com/18702-revolyucya-trivaye.html) and Oleh Tiahnybok (http://en.svoboda.org.ua/news/comments/00008590/) and then became one of the popular labeling of the protest.

  12. 12.

    The media and trust to Ukrainian and Russian media. Press release. Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.—October 2014.—http://kiis.com.ua/?lang=eng&cat=reports&id=425&page=3.

  13. 13.

    GDP Inflation http://www.gdpinflation.com/2013/11/inflation-rate-in-ukraine-from-2000-to.html.

  14. 14.

    According to World Bank data, 41.8% of people in Ukraine use the Internet. Internet users (per 100 people)—http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.P2.

  15. 15.

    Here and below the translation of citations is made by the authors of this chapter. The original versions of citations may be found via links we have provided at the end of the chapter.

  16. 16.

    It is noteworthy that Thomas Sowell in his meticulous study of intellectuals and society came to the conclusion that intellectuals’ position for or against the war depends on the period of peace. The longer the period of peace, the more chance that intellectuals would support the war as for them it is something abstract and ideational (Sowell 2011: 203–204). In this regard, it would be interesting to look more deeply at how the relation to war changed between the beginning of war and after two years after its continuation. Because of the limits of this work we cannot go more into this discussion but we should underline that the context of war should always be taken into account when we speak about the narratives since spring 2014.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Södertörn University, F930, Alfred Nobels Allee 7, 14189, Huddinge, Sweden

    Yuliya Yurchuk

  2. Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Yuriya Smolycha str., 6-a, apt. 47, Kiev, 3191, Ukraine

    Alla Marchenko

Authors
  1. Yuliya Yurchuk
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  2. Alla Marchenko
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Correspondence to Yuliya Yurchuk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ukrainian Studies, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

    Gelinada Grinchenko

  2. Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Eleonora Narvselius

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Yurchuk, Y., Marchenko, A. (2018). Intellectuals in Times of Troubles: Between Empowerment and Disenchantment During the Orange Revolution and Euromaidan. In: Grinchenko, G., Narvselius, E. (eds) Traitors, Collaborators and Deserters in Contemporary European Politics of Memory. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66496-5_6

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