Revolution of Dignity and Russian Aggression in Ukraine: Polish Reception

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity, also known as Euromaidan, and Russian aggression in Ukraine. The subject of the research are Polish-Ukrainian relations after 1991, the Polish perception of the eastern neighbour and the reception of events related to the latest Ukrainian social protest as well as Russian aggression by Polish public opinion, Polish academic communities and Polish journalists. This work focuses only on book publishing and deliberately omits press publications.

The paper pointed out that since the moment of independence in Ukraine in 1991, the interest in the Ukrainian issue has been constantly growing in Poland, with a significant increase in attention observed since 2004, namely since the Orange Revolution. Euro 2012 and events related to Euromaidan from 2013 also influenced Polish public opinion.

On the basis of the analysed material it was found that the authors of Polish texts devoted to this issue are well versed in the complexities of Ukrainian internal politics and Ukrainian history. In their numerous texts, they paid particular attention to the complicated Ukrainian-Russian relations, patronizing treatment of Ukraine by the “elder brother” and Russian ruthlessness towards the “brotherly nation”. Among the described problems there is also the issue of oligarchisation of the Ukrainian economy, widespread corruption and inefficiency of subsequent governmental teams. Above all, however, the fact of ending the process of forming a civic society in Ukraine and the increase of national consciousness and unambiguous condemnation of the “hybrid war”, unlawful annexation of Crimea or aggression in Donbass are emphasized.