Reinvention and disposal
Ukraine: the Revolution of 1917 in the light of the Maidan
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In the Ukrainian collective memory, the Russian Revolution plays a secondary role. Instead, all attention is focussed on the revolutionary period and the attempts at creating a Ukrainian state between 1917 and 1921. Many observers see parallels between that period and the “Revolution of Dignity” on the Maidan in 2013/2014 . In both cases, there is a desire for freedom, national self-determination and an independent state. Others regard the Maidan as being a second attempt at revolution that followed on from the anti-totalitarian uprising of 1989. And for undogmatic leftists, the “Revolution of Dignity” had the potential for a social movement in the fight for social justice and human rights against oligarchical capitalism and the corrupt political system in Ukraine. The revolution on the Maidan throws a new light onto 1917, on the “Soviet century”, and on Europe as it is today.
(Osteuropa 6-8/2017, pp. 273–289)