Ukrainian Euromaidan protest: Dynamics, causes, and aftermath

Abstract

In 2013–2014, Ukraine experienced an extraordinary episode of contentious politics, later called Maidan, Euromaidan, or the Revolution of Dignity. It was triggered by the government's refusal to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union, and grew into a nation‐wide social movement that demanded respect for human rights, a change of the political regime, and an end to endemic corruption. Protesters both in the capital and in the regions demanded deeper democracy and justice over the perceived harmful actions of the government. Following the unprecedented use of violence, leaving nearly a hundred dead, Euromaidan resulted in a change in the political regime, a return to pro‐European foreign policy, and an Antimaidan counter‐movement. Reacting to Kyiv events, Russia annexed Ukrainian Crimea and fueled a military conflict in eastern Ukraine. This article presents a short history of Euromaidan and a survey of the growing literature that has examined its conditions, dynamics, and outcomes.

Euromaidan Abroad: The Social Movement Motivations of Young Ukrainian Immigrants

“…Lastly, the older population joined the movement out of concern for the future of their children, the country as a whole, and the overall poor living conditions in Ukraine. As these findings and those of other studies show, the Euromaidan protestors across all age groups took to the streets not only to protect human and civil rights but also to advocate socioeconomic well-being and the restoration of respect for their human dignity (Chebotariova 2015; Zelinska 2017). Thus, while the refusal to sign the EU agreement fueled the protests, the deprivations and grievances behind them, which were deeply rooted in Ukrainian society, were the underlying causes 5…”

“…While existing research provides plentiful information about the actions of the Ukrainian diaspora during and after the Euromaidan, it rarely discusses the motivations of Ukrainians living abroad to join and support the Euromaidan compared to those living in Ukraine (e.g., Chebotariova 2015; Onuch 2014a; Zelinska 2017). For instance, Krasynska’s (2015) study about the contributions made by Ukrainians abroad to the movement through social media networks shows that some immigrants created translation blogs and participated in Twitter storm campaigns.…”

‘We fight for a better future for our country’: Understanding the Ukrainian Euromaidan movement as the emergence of a social competition strategy

“…Therefore, including the scale that measures participants’ intentions to engage in radical collective action would have potentially enabled us to uncover the mechanisms behind the political extremism (e.g., Tausch et al ., ; Thomas & Louis, ). However, the fact that we were able to recruit thousands of Ukrainians to complete an online survey without reimbursement at the time when the Parliament of Ukraine passed a set of anti‐protest laws that included measures limiting not only street assemblies but also Internet freedoms (Zelinska, ), suggests that, for some participants, completing our survey was itself a political act. Taken together, our study suggests that it is possible to conduct large‐scale social psychological research contemporaneously with protest, and thus presents an important proof of concept.…”

Finanční gramotnost v selhávajícím státě – case study Ukrajina

“…Tento předpoklad se zakládá na reáliích, které asociují počátek konfliktu. Do značné míry může také souviset s všudypřítomnou socioekonomickou deziluzí (Zelinska, 2017), jíž si populace procházela, a která byla završena odmítnutím kurzu k ekonomicky slibnému partnerství s řádově bohatším regionem EU. Krom deskripce situace je cílem této práce i náhled na rozdílnost v úrovni finanční gramotnosti napříč regiony a pátrání po případných signifikantních souvislostech, které by se mohly projevit.…”