Author: VK
In Moscow, the book "Illusion of freedom: where the Banderovites lead new Ukraine". Its author - Chief Scientific Adviser for International Election Observation CIS-EMO, a professional psychologist Stanislav Byshok - told VK about nationalism in Ukraine in particular and in the post-Soviet space in general.
“Back in the late 1980s during the collapse of the Soviet Union, since, in fact, our powerful country, no matter how good or bad it was, was falling apart and it was falling apart solely on ethnic grounds. Therefore, unfortunately, nationalism, which then started to appear in the Baltic states, in the Ukraine, in Central Asia and in the Caucasus was directed against only one ethnic group, in fact, against the Russians. In this sense, of course, the current situation in Ukraine with regard to nationalism is so far, if I may put it this way, more civilized than the situation in Central Asia. Not so long ago, the mass media reported on the ousting of Russian-speaking people from Uzbekistan, when they were losing their jobs, real estate, etc. In the Ukraine, after all, political nationalism in many ways wants to be presentable and popular, especially in the West”, Byshok said.
As for countering these processes, he said: “If in the 1990s Russia, the Russian leadership has an excuse "we are a very weak country with ongoing reforms," now Russia is a strong country, and regardless of attitudes to it inside the country and abroad, it is now recognized by everyone. That is why we could at least establish a dialogue with the help of economic leverage, cultural leverage, with the help of a dialogue between peoples, through the Diasporas of the countries in question on the territory of Russia as well as through the Russian Diaspora in those countries, and, certainly, improve the position of our compatriots abroad. In addition, the program on the protection of compatriots abroad and helping them obtain Russian citizenship, if they desire, has been largely talked about, but unfortunately, this program exists only in name and in fact very little has been done in this regard”.
“In Russia we have a lot of talk about the funding of opposition movements by Western non-profit organizations, but it is not always supported by evidence, but for instance the "Freedom" party has received a grant from the U.S. Republican Foundation, chaired by Senator John McCain, known for his sharp negative statements against Russia. So, unfortunately, the sharply negative attitude towards Russians, primarily Russia rallies forms of nationalism that exists in the countries that surround Russia, the former Soviet republics”, Byshok said.
“Recently banderovites have become part of the political mainstream of the Ukraine and joined the Verkhovna Rada. For the first time since the independence of the Ukraine, they have managed to form a faction in the Verkhovna Rada. The "Freedom" party is a nationalist party, which regards itself the successors of Stepan Bandera… According to the surveys that were conducted, it turned out that these were not marginal groups that had voted for the nationalists, for banderovites, for the successors of Bandera, as it was perhaps assumed, but young, educated people with above-average income and residents of large cities, including the Russian-speaking population. What does that mean? This implies that we should look into why the Ukrainian voters, those who are usually attributed to the "creative class" in Russia voted for a political entity that is usually rejected by the creative class in Russia. Why did it happen?..
I was interested in how was is possible that such a small-town party as “Freedom” developed into an All-Ukrainian Union, which was based in Lviv, a radical group, which at that time was known not as the "Freedom" party but as the "Social-National Party of Ukraine, received votes from the Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking citizens of the Ukraine, and residents of the West, as well as of the East. I had some anxieties, because while studying the ideology of the party, including the ideology of the party's predecessors in the face of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, I realized that there might arise very serious problems, first, in relation to the unity of Ukraine, of the Ukrainian citizens, and secondly, regarding the relations between the Ukraine and Russia, for instance, because the Ukrainian nationalism in the form in which it is represented by the current mainstream, the "Freedom" party, differs greatly from, for example, the classic Russian nationalism. Whereas the classic Russian nationalism at least presupposes the trinity of the three fraternal peoples – the Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, the "banderovite nationalism" or the "Freedom's nationalist" which is now mainstream in the Ukrainian politics, presumes an absolute difference between, for example, the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, and more than that – an initial hostility between the peoples. It also provides for the maximum withdrawal of all the things Russian and of the Russian language from the political life and even the everyday life of the Ukraine…
When Ukraine became an independent country in 1991, it was assumed that the representatives of different political parties, different views, different regions of Ukraine were to meet together, sit down at a round table and discuss, try to develop a unified view of their own history, of their own people, of their path, try not to radicalize certain different points of view, but rather come to a consensus. But in the end, it did not happen. In the end, the mainstream attitude towards the Ukrainian history is exclusively Western-centric. I am not talking about the West in terms of the Western Europe or the U.S., but in terms of the Western Ukrainian attitudes. Nowadays, the official history of Ukraine is very Western-oriented, with all its consequences, in particular the negative attitude towards Russia. Therefore, the "Freedom" party on the one hand, of course, stands out for its radicalism. Actually, in the Ukraine in the long run there are only two truly ideological parties, that is, parties built on ideology - the Communist Party of the Ukraine, its ideology is clear, and the "Freedom" party, others are rather amorphous. The discourse of the "Freedom" party even if it is presented, certainly, in a radical form, however, unfortunately, reflects the current political mainstream and the ideas that are adopted with regard to history, geopolitical issues."
