Democratic revolution is a state–society dialogue about rights, and the regime that results depends on the ideas negotiated during revolutionary socialization. Offering an unparalleled opportunity to see that negotiation in action, Maidan draws on more than one hundred personal interviews, oral histories, legal documents, and court hearings. The Ukrainian state used violence and violations of due process to suppress the resistance, thereby declaring new boundaries in rights relations. In turn, the people pushed back in multiple arenas – the protest square, courtrooms, hospitals, churches, and media – to successfully challenge the constitutionality of the state’s actions.

Western media accounts tend to oversimplify the Revolution of Dignity as backlash against President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision not to sign a European Union agreement. The reality had far deeper implications for the geopolitics of the region. Sophia Wilson’s account of the revolution, and the Kremlin propaganda about it, underscores why it is impossible to understand Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without first understanding what fuelled the Maidan: the affirmation of democracy and the rooting out of Russian puppet authoritarianism.

Sophia Wilson is Associate Professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and President of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies.

The presentation will be followed by a discussion and Q&A session.

For registration, please send an email to artes-fgw@uva.nl