Adrian Karatnycky—
The heroism and resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of Russia’s aggression has been on display for nearly two-and-a-half years now. Ukraine’s and Ukrainians fierce resistance to Russia’s invasion has earned justified admiration. Yet how did this remarkable display of national unity and purpose arise? How did a nation, heretofore, regarded as deeply divided congeal? How did Ukraine, a state regarded as corrupt and dysfunctional show such significant capacity at an existential moment?
Ukraine became independent in 1991 and many of its early leaders were a motley collection of former communists and rapacious oligarchs. Yet from the outset, post-colonial Ukraine’s political and cultural battleground was characterized not only by the presence of Soviet-era bureaucrats but by an active civil society. Additionally, by an emerging private sector of hardy entrepreneurs and a handful of compelling moral leader such as Vyacheslav Chornovil—a former political prisoner who headed Ukraine’s largest freedom movement and democratic political party until his assassination in 1999.
The period of Ukraine’s emergence—1991 to now—is roughly 35 years, a period of time that matches that of the Declaration of Independence to the War of 1812. Much like our own Founding Fathers, Ukraine and its early leaders faced the challenge of building a state, establishing a legal and constitutional framework, and developing a compelling narrative to promote national cohesion. Both the U.S. and Ukraine faced these challenges in the face of imperialist powers intent on waging war and destroying their nascent statehood.
Many of Ukraine’s early founding fathers—an array of former Communists ideologues, Soviet-era factory bosses, and mendacious oligarchs—lacked a sense of their historical role and of the great purpose of nation-building. Yet they were successfully pressed to build a sovereign and democratic state by a new generation of patriotic civic and student activists and by the moral pressure exerted by a generation of former political prisoners, writers, and artists.
In the first twenty years of Ukraine’s existence, the public remained deeply divided. In Ukraine’s western and central regions a spirit of civic patriotism, commitment to democracy, and desire to integrate into Europe and the West predominated. In the country’s east and south, nostalgia for the Soviet past, the siren song of Russian—Ukrainian fraternity, and anti-Western tropes. Those that were promoted by influential Russian state media and local oligarchs kept the nation from consolidating.
Over time the consequences of several decades of statehood, the desire of national elites to preserve their independence, and the revival of a long suppressed Ukrainian culture, language and identity prevailed. By 2014, when Russia brazenly invaded and annexed Crimea and launched its bid to separate Southern and Eastern Ukraine from the state, Ukrainians from all regions overwhelmingly congealed as a united people and rallied to defend their country. That national consolidation came just in time, ensuring that when Russia launched an all-out war and multi-front invasion, Ukraine could capably fight back.
Throughout history, empires have collapsed and independent states emerge from their ashes. To have been an observer such a dramatic process first-hand over three and a half decades—from the first days of Ukraine’s national rebirth to the Russian war—has allowed me to shape a narrative that explains why Ukrainians fight and why they continue to hold firmly to the values of democracy and tolerance even in the face of the brutality of the Russian state.
Adrian Karatnycky is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Through the council’s Ukraine program, as a labor union official, and as CEO of Freedom House, he has been deeply engaged in Ukraine for over three decades. He has written about Ukraine for leading newspapers and journals.
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