Ukraine: A War Between a Liberal and Illiberal Democracy

957 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Ukraine and Russian conflict

Ukraine: A War Between a Liberal and Illiberal Democracy

The current crisis in Ukraine can simply be coined as a war between the citizens wanting their country to be a liberal or an illiberal democracy. The Eastern Ukrainians, who have substantial amounts of influence from Russia, wish to support Russia and it’s illiberal democracy, it’s competitive authoritarian regime. The Western Ukrainians wish to join the European Union and their liberal democracies based on the foundation that the rights of the people will be preserved and that the citizens has influence in the government. The Western Ukrainians understand what it means to be part of Russia, history stemming back all the way to 1600s, and understand that it comes at the cost of Ukraine losing its identity. To understand the mindset of Western Ukrainians, one must first understand the history.

In 1654, Ukraine was at war with Poland, Russia, and Tatar (what is known today as Turkey). The leader at the time, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, signed the Treaty of Pereyaslav with Russia, signed the treaty with only good intentions, to gain the support of a strong ally, however, his intentions were not met. The Russian leaders at the time had a very different idea of the meaning of the treaty, which led to the beginnings of Russian control of Ukraine (Raikhel, “They Did Something They Did Not Desire). In 1876, Tsar Alexander II of Russia banned the printing of Ukrainian language, as well as Ukrainian language stage performances, and only allowed printing in Russian, as well as Russian only stage performances (“Ems Ukaz”). In 1888, Alexander III banned the use of Ukrainian language in government institutions as well as baptizing children with Ukrainian names. These blatant acts were attempt...

... middle of paper ...

...ent out of the country during his rule. (Zinets and Heritage, “Ukraine PM Says $37 Billion Went Missing Under Yanukovich”). Yanukovich’s $75 million home, the missing $37 billion, and the way Russia has been lying about and slandering the protestors has convinced the former pro-Russian Eastern Ukraine that joining the European Union is the best possible decision.

The people of Ukraine see how the Russian media is controlled, how the Russian competitive authoritarian regime works, and they wish to have no part of it. The people in Ukraine want a fair and just government, they want to join the European Union where the rights of the citizens are preserved, where the President doesn’t control the entire country and the citizens have a voice, where the media and people have freedom of speech, and to finally become completely independent from Russia and its influence.

Show More
Related

  • Assess the impact of World War I on the Fall of the Romanov Dynasty

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    Moss, W., 2014. A History of Russia Volume 2: Since 1855. 1st ed. London, England: Anthem Press London, pp.112-113.

    Read More

  • Enlightened Absolutism In Russia

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Enlightened absolutism is a form of absolute monarchy inspired by the Enlightenment. During the 18th century, the Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that spread across Europe and beyond. The thinkers of the Enlightenment, known as philosophes, introduced ideas from the advances in science to change the way that people thought about government and society. Philosophes wanted to replace superstition, tyranny, and injustice with reason, tolerance, and legal equality. Many rulers in Europe and Russia used certain ideals of enlightened absolutism to govern their people and state. Although rulers agreed to some aspects of the ideals they were not true believers of the reforms. To maintain their power, they convinced society that they were

    Read More

  • The Ukrainian Shatter Belt: A New Cold War

    1709 Words  | 4 Pages

    The information war between the West and Russia had intensified once again and reached levels higher than the levels of Russo-Georgia war (2008). Russian media naturally is defending its annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol as a democratic referendum and justifying the military intervention as the protection of rights of the Russian population of Crimea. The referendum was very controversial since it had an unusually high voter turnout and the Pro-Russian vote has created speculations that the referendum has been falsified by the Russian government. The Western media condemns Russia for the anne...

    Read More

  • The Story of My Parent's Emmigration from Ukraine

    2379 Words  | 5 Pages

    has been aiming to demolish the Ukrainian nation and devour the country to rebuild the USSR

    Read More

  • Transnistria Case Study

    981 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 2012, the total population of Luhansk comprised approximately 426,000 people. The majority of city´s industrial companies have established connections with the Donbas coal and steel complex (Gentile, 2015). Generally, almost everyone in Ukraine is able to fluently speak and understand Russian, however, a vast number of people are not able to speak Ukrainian. They have an even problem to understand the language (Himka, 2015). In addition, the eastern part of Ukraine is largely urbanized and for this reason, the region more easily assimilated to use of Russian language (Himka, 2015). From the past, it is known that in the 1990s, approximately one-third of the population of Donetsk proclaimed not to support the addition of the Donbas to Ukraine (Shulman, 1998 as quoted in Gentile, 2015). Especially the Russian minority, people from the east, the retired and the poorest tend to be more pro-Russian oriented. They are even willing to follow stronger bonds with Russia (Kubicek, 2000 as quoted in Gentile, 2015). In one of his speeches, Putin mentioned the gone areas of “Novorossiya” including areas of Donbas and Luhansk, that were ceded to the Ukrainian SSR by the Soviet administration in the 1920s (Allison, 2014). This political situation resulted

    Read More

  • Crisis in Ukraine

    1114 Words  | 3 Pages

    The big crisis in Ukraine is starting to get out of hand. The government cannot even figure out what to do, and is getting kicked out of office. There are street protests happening all over Ukraine especially at Kyiv’s Independence Square. There is civil unrest against Yanukovych because he did not do what the people wanted to have. After everything is starting to cool down, Russian troops start to enter the country. The crisis was getting so far out of hand that the US and the EU had to figure out how to help, so they got involved in the crisis. The Ukraine conflict was triggered by Yanukovych declining the EU deal, and when everything was getting settled down in Ukraine, Russia invades Ukraine.

    Read More

  • Lessons from Nazi Germany: Safeguarding Western Democracy

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    8. The most tragic part of being a German citizen under Nazi rule before World War II was that they had no idea what was going to happen. Nobody could have predicted how those events would have unfolded until they actually occurred. This is the biggest threat to Western democracy and what democratic societies can learn from. The German people saw a failing Weimar Republic and could only think that democracy had failed them, they had nowhere else to turn. It’s important for democratic societies to learn how to act in times of crisis, else they might find themselves experiencing the same fate as Germany. It’s easy for nations that boast freedom and democracy to believe that such a thing couldn’t happen in their country, however, even the most

    Read More

  • Russia, Ukraine & the World: Current Events

    1452 Words  | 3 Pages

    International politics as one may imagine includes foreign affairs. This is why the topic and focus of this paper revolves around the current event within Eastern Europe. It will focus on both Russia, Ukraine, and the world, and from it, it will be analyzed by using the resources provided within class. After all it is a International Politics course, and one of the best ways to effectively put the skills and knowledge to use is to focus on an event or current event. The paper will attempt to go over in a chronological order of the events that has happened, and what is happening currently over in Ukraine. Afterwards, an analyzed input will be implemented providing reasoning behind Russia's actions, and actions of the world, and potentially some solutions.

    Read More

  • Soviet Union Breakup

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although everything seemed to be all right, they did dispute some matters, they originally only wanted to have one military between all republics but it was changed and each had its own, Russia and Ukraine argued over who owned the Black Sea Fleet, another problem was that most of the members wanted to change the currency from the Ruble so each had to create its own.

    Read More

  • Why the United States should not get involved in Ukraine

    530 Words  | 2 Pages

    [2] Weaver, Matthew. "Ukraine Crisis." The Guardian. N.p., 20 Feb. 2014. Web. 7 Mar. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Current Events: Russia

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    "'Russia Trying to Create Climate of Chaos in Ukraine'" Global Public Square RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

  • The Ukraine Crisis

    1906 Words  | 4 Pages

    The current international crisis involving Russia and Ukraine developed in the aftermath of the 2014 revolution in Ukraine. As a result, Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich was impeached and quickly fled the capital. An interim government formed around Oleksandr Turchynov as the acting president. Germany and the US quickly recognized this new government, while Russia did not. In late February, pro-Russian militias began taking control of Crimea, a part of eastern Ukraine. Gradually they dominated the peninsula and effectively took control of it. Soon after, the Crimeans held a referendum, and overwhelmingly decided to join Moscow. The West and interim Ukrainian government condemned this decision, as did the UN General Assembly. Nonetheless, Russia has effectively absorbed Crimea.

    Read More

  • The Annexation Of Crime Geopolitic Analysis

    1209 Words  | 3 Pages

    Crimea’s history with Russia begins in 1783, when it became an annexed state (Taylor). However, to most of those within the western sphere of schooling most commonly learn about Crimea from the Crimean war. It occurred from 1853 to 1856 and involved Russia, Sardinia, France, Britain, and the Ottoman Empire. After three years of arduous fighting Russia eventually lost the war, but it did manage the keep the treasured peninsula. After the fall of the Russian Empire, in 1921 Crimea became “ The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic” and unquestionably part of the Soviet Union. In the following decades, Crimea much like the rest of Europe endured the strain of the Second World War, but surprisingly in 1945 it was gifted from Russia to the Ukraine. According to Taylor, there are a couple of possi...

    Read More

  • The Ukraine Revolution In Ukraine

    1099 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe, that borders Russia north and northeast. Lately Ukraine has been making international headlines; the country is in complete and total turmoil or for lack of better words a crisis. What started as a request from the Ukrainian citizens for a change in government, limit the powers of the president, restore the country constitution back to its original form from 2004-2010, and get closer ties to the EU. Peaceful protesting turned in to a nightmare, when the then president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych failed to make good on his word. Instead, he made a deal with Russian president and late sought refuge in Russia. A few weeks later, he was ousted from this prompted the Ukraine revolution and the annexation of Crimea also known as the Crimean crisis. A revolution in Ukraine took place in February 2014 for a period of 5 days in Kiev the capital of Ukraine, after a series of violent events in the capital culminated with the ousting of the then-President of Ukraine. Immediately following the ousting of Yanukovych, immediate changes took place in Ukraine’s sociopolitical system. Starting with the a new interim government being installed and the constitution was restored to its original state, and plans to hold impromptu presidential elections in the months to follow. Before the revolution, Ukraine had been sunken by years of corruption, mismanagement, lack of growth economically , their currency value had dropped , and they had the inability to secure funding from public markets. Because of this, president Yanukovych wanted to establish closer relationship with the European Union (EU) and Russia in order to attract the money necessary to maintain Ukraine's standard of living without a...

    Read More

  • The Conflict Between the Ukraine and Russia

    1600 Words  | 4 Pages

    The conflict between the Ukraine and Russia is the Ukraine's most long-standing and deadly crisis; since its post-Soviet independence began as a protest against the government dropping plans to forge closer trade ties with the European Union. The conflict between Russia and the Ukraine stems from more than twenty years of weak governance, the government’s inability to promote a coherent executive branch policy, an economy dominated by oligarchs and rife with corruption, heavy reliance on Russia, and distinct differences between Ukraine's population from both Eastern and Western regions in terms of linguistics, religion and ethnicity (Lucas 2009).

    Read More

More about Ukraine: A War Between a Liberal and Illiberal Democracy

Open Document