Ukraines Euromaidan: From Revolutionary Euphoria to the Madness of War

(Hardback)

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This book provides a critical survey of Ukraines 2013-14 Euromaidan Revolution the Revolution of Dignity. Offering a considered analysis of the protest movement and the counter-protest movement, Ukraines Euromaidan explores both sides of a revolution that shaped not just Ukraine, but the world, as told by the participants themselves, including the author.

Drawing on a varied and complex source base, including thousands of archived videos, articles, personal memoirs, and social media posts, as well as numerous interviews and the authors own eyewitness observations of both sides of the barricades, the book examines the Euromaidan in Kyiv and Ukraines regions. It foregrounds the Euromaidans early marginalization of leftist voices, despite gaining international appeal and how activists and politicians failed to win concessions or mobilize broader masses of people. William Jay Risch shines a light on how escalating revolutionary violence badly weakened the state and pitted citizens against one another. Risch also reflects on the Russian Spring counter-protests that swept through Ukraines south and east, revealing the counter-protesters agency and revolutionary aspirations, as well as Russias role in radicalizing them, in the process. With both sides dehumanizing each other and clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian protesters often proving lethal, Risch compellingly contends that the Euromaidan Revolution ultimately exposed the limits of revolutionary change in todays world of contentious politics.

Author Bio

William Jay Risch is Professor of Russian and Eastern European History at Georgia College & State University, USA. He is the author of The Ukrainian West: Culture and the Fate of Empire in Soviet Lviv (2011) and the editor of Youth and Rock in the Soviet Bloc (2014).