A Ukraine twenty years after independence Assessments, perspectives, challenges Edited by Giovanna Elisabeth Brogi, Marta Dyczok Oxana Pachlovska, Giovanna Siedina Contributes by Yuri Shcherbak, Kataryna Wolczuk and Roman Wolczuk, Anna Veronika Wendland, Yevhen Zacharov, Myroslav Marynovych, Ivan Dac’ko, Oleh Turii, Mykhailo Gonchar, Pietro Grilli di Cortona, Barbara Pisciotta, Caterina Filippini, Marta Dyczok, Oleksandr Paliy, Volodymyr Horbach, Alexander J. Motyl, Michael A. Moser, Nadiya Trach, Alois Woldan, Simone Bellezza, Renata Caruso, Marko Pavlyshyn, Alessandro Achilli, Maksym Strikha Copyright © MMXV ARACNE editrice S.r.l. www.aracneeditrice.it [email protected] via Raffaele Garofalo, /A–B Roma () ---- No part of this book may be reproduced by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche, or any other means, without publisher’s authorization. I edition: febbraio Contents Foreword Giovanna Elisabeth Brogi Part I Society, Politics, Economy Law, Religion The Geopolitical Role of Ukraine and its Foreign Politics During Years of independence Yuri Scherbak ‘Soft is beautiful. ! Ukraine’s Approach to Regional Integra- tion’ Kataryna Wolczuk, Roman Wolczuk Chornobyl in a New History of Modern Ukraine Subjects, Methods, and Limits Anna Veronika Wendland Human Rights in Ukraine. – Yevhen Zakharov Religious Freedom vs Traditions of State Favoritism: an Un- steady Balance Myroslav Marynovych ‘Traditional’ Churches In Independent Ukraine. In Search of Common Identity F. Iwan Dacko, F. Oleh Turii Ukraine twenty years after independence Energy Pendulum as an Illustration of Ukraine’s Twenty–Year Way. Between the Vested Interests of Oligarchonomics and the Energy Independence of the State Mykhailo Gonchar The Ukrainian Political System from Independence to Demo- cratic Involution Pietro Grilli di Cortona, Barbara Pisciotta The Constitutional Development of Ukraine. Amendment Procedures in Theory and Practice Caterina Filippini Threats to Free Speech in Ukraine: The Bigger Picture Marta Dyczok The Consequences of the Election in Ukraine Oleksandr Paliy Nobody Wanted to Win Volodymyr Horbach Ukraine after the Yanukovych Ruin Alexander J. Motyl Part II Language, Culture, Literature Pushing the “Regional Language”. Ukraine’s Law “On Prin- ciples of the State Language Policy” in Force Michael A. Moser Language and Identity in Contemporary Ukrain Nadiya Trach A New Hero for Ukraine. Mazepa in Recent Ukrainian Publi- cations Alois Woldan Contents Building Memory. National Identities and Monuments in Post–Soviet Ukraine Simone A. Bellezza Dmytro Dontsov’s Ideology of Integral Nationalism in Post–Soviet Ukraine Renata Caruso Post–coloniality as Method and Mind–Set. Ukrainian Litera- ture and Literary Scholarship – Marko Pavlyshyn Soviet Dissident Writers in The Literary Canon of Contem- porary Ukraine Alessandro Achilli Educational Policy of Ukraine since . Back to the Imperial Past Maksym V.Strikha Ukraine twenty years after independence ISBN 978-88-548-7765-8 DOI 10.4399/97888548776581 pag. 9–14 (febbraio 2015) Foreword G E B This book contains the papers presented at an international conference held in Rome (Italy) on June –, , organized by several Italian specialists in Ukrainian studies and Institutions connected to Ukraine or Ukrainian culture. The main promoter of the enterprise was the Italian Association of Ukrainian Studies, which found enthusiastic support from and fruitful cooperation with the University of “Roma Tre”, the University of Verona, the Ukrainian Catholic University. The aim of the conference was to offer an overview of various aspects of Ukrainian life in the past twenty years, this is to say in the period after the declaration of independence and the creation of a new state. The approach was intended to be interdisciplinary, based on solid scholarly methodologies, capable of exploring such different fields as social and cultural life, literature, politics, economics, international relationships, juridical aspects. The basic issues explored may be condensed into the following questions: Did the last two decades of Ukrainian life bring an advancement in the socio–political and cultural situation of the country, or are negative outcomes dominant? Are there indications in post–Soviet society that some real change occurred in mentality, intellectual skills, sense of civic responsibility? Is there any chance of regeneration of civil society definitively wrecked by the corrup- tion spread in most branches of social, political and economic life? Has Ukraine really a possibility of continuing her eternal policy of lavishing between one pole and the other in search of a ‘third way’? What are the chances of the opposition to find some kind of cohe- sive discourse and a pragmatic way to bring the country out of the stormy waters between the ‘Russian Scylla’ and the ‘nativist Charyb- dis’? How may the general economic and civilizational improvements of the last two decades overcome the system inherited by Soviet time, based on blackmail, domination of stiff hierarchical bureaucracy in Foreword key–institutions of intellectual and cultural life? How may civil so- ciety overcome the open attacks launched by the Yanukovych era onto the most vital organs of education, media, political life? Let us remember that persecution of any form of dissident public opinion, or simply honest journalism, increased dramatically between and , and that jail was still the fate destined to opposition charismatic personalities until the end of February . The results of the conference, as it is easy to expect, are not able to give full answers to all of the mentioned questions, and other similar doubts that the Western reader necessarily harbors when thinking about Ukraine. The events of November –May have profoundly changed the situation. Nonetheless we consider that these papers offer some insight in many urgent issues which still are at stake in the moment of the publication of this book, though the presidential elections of May and the parliamentary elections of October , indicate the possibility of a new development for Ukraine’s future. We are confident that the present publication will help a broad range of interested public to grasp some central points of Ukrainian society and culture of the last twenty five years. Yury Sherbak offers a very critical, and rather pessimistic, represen- tation of the ambiguous diplomatic play between Ukrainian politicians, and NATO and EU representatives, in the various phases of interna- tional policy of and around Ukraine after the disintegration of the USSR: “Someday historians of the future will say their word regarding this decision (to deny Ukraine joining the action plan for NATO mem- bership) that resembled Munich events of ”, the author writes. Still he does not abandon the hope that the situation of politics and hu- man rights in to–day’s Ukraine may be rejected by civil society in the future. After a short history of the development of human rights orga- nizations in the last decade of the USSR, Yevhen Zakharov focuses on the difficulties similar associations have experienced in reorganizing in independent Ukraine. The failure of the Orange Revolution and the increasing authoritarian trends of the Yanukovych era made the work of human rights organizations considerably more difficult, but contributed to increase their number, their strength and effectiveness, thus giving an important contribution to the civic evolution of the country. Directly connected with the level of freedom and civil rights is the Foreword situation of media. As Marta Dyczok puts it, the Ukrainian situation is better understood when viewed in the context of larger power strug- gles, and a global, comparative perspective. The author analyzes the contradictions between the desire for democratic information, the lur- ing idea that privatization may be considered tantamount to freedom, and the reality of an information system based on marketing and “vulnerable to manipulation by political forces”. In her conclusions a sparkle of optimism is represented by satellite TV and internet, but the fact that the domination of media by a few powerful corporations or men is an international phenomenon does not offer many reasons for confidence about future democracy in information. The destructive power of the crucial issue of gas exploitation and transportation is presented in vivid and clear terms by Mykhailo Honchar, as a factor of destabilization and major danger not only for Ukraine, but for its international political implications and connections with financial dirty affairs. International political relations, negotiations and wavering attitudes between the wish to find forms of belonging to the EU system and the perennial fascination coming from the ‘Eastern brother’ are the object of the paper by Roman and Kataryna Wolczuk, which elucidates how difficulties come from both Ukraine’s inaptitude to encounter EU expectations and the latter’s difficulties to adopt a valid ‘project’ for the integration of Ukraine in her ambiguous and vacillating pol- icy. Political negotiations are connected with juridical aspects of the life of any new independent state: papers by Caterina Filippini and Pietro Grilli da Cortona–Barbara Pisciotta offer interesting analysis of Ukraine’s constitutional system in the international context and a description of some of the main difficulties in the practical application of theoretical good principles. The papers by Anna Veronica Wendland, Simone Bellezza and Re- nata Caruso investigate various aspects