Nearly six years after the fall of the regime of Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s Euromaidan Revolution of 2013-2014 is increasingly becoming a subject of historical analysis, albeit one still fraught with political controversy.
This is clear in Mychailo Wynnyckyi’s book, Ukraine’s Maidan, Russia’s War: A Chronicle and Analysis of the Revolution of Dignity, published last year. Wynnyckyj, Associate Professor of Sociology at the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, was a participant in the protests held on Kyiv’s main square, the Maidan. Wynnyckyj prefers the term “Maidan” to “Euromaidan,” as the latter suggests that the protest movement was merely about having Ukraine sign an Association Agreement with the European Union, when from December 2013 onward this was a revolution aimed at overthrowing Yanukovych.
Wynnyckyj openly admits that his account may be one-sided, and to be fair to the author, it is an academic memoir. Throughout the book, he reminds readers that he supported the protests at the Kyiv Maidan. Not only did Wynnyckyj take part in protests there, he worked with other Maidan activists trying to spread the message of the Maidan to other regions of Ukraine (devising with them a banner in Russian, “Understand us. We’re fed up!” [Poimite nas. Zadolbalo!], displayed across one of the Maidan’s main barricades and photographs of which spread worldwide). Later, after Russia began its war with Ukraine, he and other patriotic Ukrainians helped donate money and supplies for Ukraine’s military forces, including its volunteer battalions. He served as an advisor in Ukraine’s Ministry of Education, implementing key reforms which he identified with the spirit of the Maidan.
