Emancipation and Self-assertion
The Ukrainian Question, the West, and Russia
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The new Ukraine recalls the old Polish republic not only in its multi-ethnic and multi-religious character. The Euromaidan’s struggle for Western values also stands in the republican tradition. What was the “Polish question” in the 19th and 20th centuries is today “the Ukrainian question”: the drive of a patronized people for emancipation and self-assertion. The question whether a democratic Ukraine governed by rule of law is more important than raw materials from Siberia, is a test case for the West. The much-maligned European Union has withstood the test and proven more capable of acting than expected. Those who believe in a revival of the Tsarist-Stalinist empire have the short end of the stick.
(Osteuropa 3/2015, pp. 3–23)