“The decolonization of Ukraine is underway. This is a historic moment for Ukrainians,” – reads the text by Prof. Alexander J. Motyl. The expert, who in his career has taught at Columbia University in New York, Lehigh University, Harvard University, among others, and is currently a professor of political science at Rutgers University in Newark, USA. Professor Motyl, who is of Ukrainian descent, seeks to show Ukraine’s inside view of its own history and future. The idea, he says, is to break the “story of a perpetually lost nation.” – Once again, there is a war of national liberation in Ukraine. The outcome of today’s anti-imperialist clash will determine whose vision of Ukraine’s history will triumph. If Kiev wins, it will get to write its own history. If, on the other hand, it loses, history, as before, will perhaps be written by the colonizers, who will again portray Ukrainians as savages deserving of chains,” argues Prof. Motyl. As the scientist adds, this new history of Ukraine will not be to the liking of either the Russians or the Poles. Sometimes even the Ukrainians themselves.
Author: prof. Alexander J. Motyl, Rutgers University w Newark.
Ed. based on author’s materials: Piotr Kaszuwara.
As Eric Wolf wrote in 1969: “the decisive factor in peasant rebellion is the attitude of the peasantry toward the surrounding authorities. The peasants are rational, with material interests and moral codes that they try to pursue and stick to. They repay their oppressors often aggressively and violently.
The colonizers historically, as well as today, if one were to look again at Ukraine, view the rebellious peoples as wild, irrational and impulsive. It is striking how similar the stereotypes of Ukrainians are in the two imperial traditions, Russian and Polish.
It is impossible to talk about modern Ukraine without referring to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The OUN was a typically nationalist movement that, like the IRA, PLO, FLN and Irgun, attached absolute importance to Ukrainian independent statehood.
If the stereotypes are discarded and a fresh look is taken at Ukraine’s history, driven by decolonization, it will automatically become a history of colonization on the one hand and resistance – sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent – on the other. This is how Ukraine’s history has a chance to become morally and theoretically put together. It becomes the real history of the nation and the state, and not just a warning handed down by the victors,” writes Prof. Alexander J. Motyl.
Pictured is the monument to Bohdan Khmelnitsky
Decolonization of Ukraine
Ukrainians are now extremely determined to actually “decolonize” their country. Almost forgotten by European countries, their imperial rule in the Global South, for example, has long been a thing of the past. In contrast, the damage done to the culture and identity of the people there, but also in post-Soviet countries by Russia, still needs to be repaired. According to Prof. Butterfly, one of the main goals for present-day Ukraine is to rewrite the history of its own country. But history from a completely different point of view. Not as a losers’ tale, as Ukrainians have so far mostly painted themselves.
Ukraine’s perception of its own people is often dominated by issues of violence, because its history is all too full of it. Throughout history, various invaders – be they Mongols, Poles, Russians or Germans – usually used extreme violence against Ukrainians. In this way, they tried to colonize Ukrainian territories. Ukrainians often reacted in defense of their own homeland in a similar way to the invaders, that is, with extreme aggression. Since their violence usually ended in defeat, the victors of written history, classified Ukraine as the violent side.
However, if one were to look at Ukraine through the prism of the term decolonization, it begins to resemble non-European colonies that have long revolted against the political domination, economic exploitation and cultural oppression experienced from the inhabitants of the Old Continent. In their battles, natives of, say, Africa or Asia, also often resorted to horrific violence against their former occupiers. This type of behavior was described, for example, by Ryszard Kapuscinski in his book about the revolution and decolonization in Angola, titled “The Revolution. “Another Day of Life.”
In Ukraine, indigenous violence, while it may seem morally unacceptable, was never dictated by any original prejudices. On the contrary, in Ukraine, as in most of the colonies, violence was the result of reactive national liberation struggles and peasant uprisings.
Wojny chłopskie
As Eric Wolf wrote in his 1969 classic, “The Peasant Wars of the 20th Century. “Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century,” “the determining factor in peasant rebellion is the attitude of the peasantry toward the surrounding authorities. The peasants are rational, they have material interests and moral codes they try to pursue and adhere to. When an opportunity arises to repay their persecutors for past humiliations, the peasants seize the chance and often then act with extreme cruelty.
Colonizers historically, as well as contemporaries, if one were to look again at Ukraine, view rebellious peoples as wild, irrational and impulsive. It is striking how similar the stereotypes of Ukrainians are in the two imperial traditions. In the Russian stereotype, Ukrainians are cunning, uncultured and treacherous “khokhols.” In the Polish stereotype, they are seen as bloodthirsty, brutal and aggressive. Both stereotypes reduce Ukrainians to mindless savages – quite in line with Frantz Fanon and Albert Memmi’s interpretation of the way European colonizers viewed the peoples of Africa.
If, on the other hand, these stereotypes are discarded and a fresh look is taken at Ukraine’s history, driven by decolonization, it will automatically become a history of colonization on the one hand and resistance – sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent – on the other. This is how Ukraine’s history has a chance to become morally and theoretically put together. It becomes the real history of the nation and the state, and not just a cautionary tale handed down by the victors.
A few examples will illustrate the point even better.
History of Ukraine since the time of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi
The uprising of Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1648 is often interpreted as a mass anti-Semitic pogrom, writes Prof. Motyl. It is true that some Ukrainians were undoubtedly anti-Semitic. It is also true that Ukrainian peasants and Cossacks murdered tens of thousands of Jews. But they didn’t do it just for racial or class reasons. For them, Jews were often hated intermediaries between the exploiters, i.e. the Polish nobility, and the exploited, i.e. the serf peasants. Khmelnytsky’s rebels also killed tens of thousands of people seen as collaborators with the Polish crown. They were mostly Poles, of course, but also Ukrainian Uniates who sided with Polish Catholicism. Therefore, the combination of anti-imperial resistance and class warfare at the same time ultimately led to a bloody uprising.
The years during and immediately after World War I were unsuccessful attempts to create an independent Ukrainian state. While Ukrainian nationalists squabbled among themselves over the scraps of territory they controlled, Bolsheviks, anti-Bolsheviks, Poles, Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, Turks, anarchists, warlords, or simply bandits took over the country again.
Once again, national liberation and peasant war combined with anti-Semitism to create a storm of violence. Especially against the Jews, who, as in the 17th century, were still seen as exploiters.
Decolonization of Ukraine: the CNS, Bandera and the Nazis
It is impossible to talk about modern Ukraine without reference to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The OUN was a typically nationalist movement that, like the IRA, PLO, FLN and Irgun, attached absolute importance to Ukrainian independent statehood. Its leader Stepan Bandera and many others paid for this intransigence with prosecution first by Polish, then Nazi and finally Soviet security forces. The OUN had its great missed opportunity during World War II, when Poles and Ukrainians fought over territory that Hitler and Stalin had reduced to “bloody lands.”
Common interests led Ukrainian peasants, together with nationalists, to launch an uprising against “Polish colonists,” in Volhynia in 1943. Their actions resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Polish peasants and many Ukrainians. In 2016, the Polish Sejm recognized the Volhynian Slaughter as genocide. The same, however, seen through the eyes of Ukraine, is a very sometimes bloody, even criminal and morally blameworthy, case of two simultaneous wars: one wanting national liberation, but also one dictated by peasant hunger for land.
Many modern Ukrainians look upon Khmelnytskyi, the World War I nationalists, and the CNS as heroes. Not because of the bloodshed and violence they all abhor and condemn, but because of their deep commitment to national liberation and social justice. Not surprisingly, many Poles, Jews or Russians disagree. They look at the struggle of Ukrainians from their perspective. Similarly, Ukraine is seen by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, who considers all Ukrainians to be “neo-Nazis.”
In recent years, we have seen nothing less than a modern national liberation struggle in Ukraine. This is the 21st century “peasant war” being waged to consolidate Ukrainian statehood. The outcome of the current anti-imperial war will determine whose vision of Ukrainian history will triumph. If Ukrainians win, perhaps for the first time, they will have a real chance to write their own history. If, on the other hand, they lose, their history, as before, will perhaps be written by the colonizers, who will probably again portray them as savages deserving of chains.
Alexander J. Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers University in Newark. He specializes in Ukraine, Russia and the USSR, as well as nationalism, revolutions, empires and theory. He is the author of 10 non-fiction books, as well as “Imperial Ends : The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires” and “Why the Rebirth of Empires : the decline of empire and the rebirth of empire in comparative perspective. He has Ukrainian roots.
Pictures, photos for text: Piotr Kaszuwara, Pixabay.com: Artem_Apukhtin, Wikipedia.
