Anatomy of the Revolution - Part I - The Stage is Set
February 22, 2014 at 2:28pm
** My take and reflections on the events of the last three months in Ukraine. I will post them as I write them over the next few days and weeks **
93 days - that’s how long it took from the first protest to the first day when intellectuals, students, children, pensioners and everyone else in the country could take off their helmets without the fear of being shot. It was an incredibly long journey for the country, with many twists and turns and this account is written from the perspective of an observer and is meant to be taken as such.
This revolution started, as such movements today do, with a tweet, inviting anyone who cares to come down to the Independence Monument in central Kiev. The Prime Minister Azarov – now enjoying semi-retirement in Austria – had just announced that Ukraine will not sign an association agreement with the European Union after all. Apparently, liberalizing trade, releasing Yulia Timoshenko, and passing a range of reforms, was simply too costly. Such analysis may have been quite accurate, for after 23 years of stagnation, Ukrainian businesses were indeed not ready for competition from the West; without the leadership of Yulia Timoshenko, the opposition proved its ineptitude, time and time again; and reforms designed to fight the rampant corruption would have hurt the very politicians urged to pass these measures. Talk about conflict of interest. But, it is the wealthy ‘West’ that can inundate themselves with such trivialities, in Ukraine it was business as usual. Yanukovich was more concerned with his reelection prospects in 2015 and he chose to stake his future on closer relationship with Russia, rather than cooperate with the more demanding West. People be dammed.
Business as usual was how the protests in late November could be described as well. Students, hoping, nay, yearning for the ever illusive, ‘better future’ answered the tweet. Some came out in Kiev, most in Lviv. They spoke from makeshift stages; they demanded the agreement to be signed at the upcoming Vilnus summit; they vented their anger and frustration; they slept outside, but, deep down they knew. They knew what country they live in. They knew that this decision was irreversible and they were in shock, at that moment they knew that they would have to go back to their universities, toil, pay bribes, use their connections to get hired and survive. They knew that they are but a toy, a kitten to be played with by those ruling from the skies. And so, inspired by an ounce of agency, for 8 or 9 days, they did their best to keep the protests going. Unlike 2004, these were not political protests. The students tried their best to keep politics, political parties and politicians out. Opposition, or the government, it was two sides of the same, incredibly rusty coin. However, political opposition, fueled by political opportunism, familiar political technologies, and the inherent mission to protest, set up their own parallel demonstrations. And over time, merged and later took over the organizational functions.
If protests ever have an end, it is because inertia ends, good will dissipates, internal defeatist attitude creeps in and the self-destructive demotivation and futility of one’s actions is realized. That moment came on November 29 and especially on November 30. The numbers dwindled, the agreement with the EU was not signed after all, and those protesting realized that, rather than being ignored yet again by the government, they should go back to something more useful, like studying for their finals, getting ready for the 2015 presidential elections, or simply commencing their Christmas shopping. And who can blame them, yet again. It was all for naught.
