Festival of Ideas — 2021: How Ukraine sees its future

What conclusions do Ukrainians imagine after the first 30 years of restoration of Independence? How do you see your present? How do they imagine their future? At the panel discussion “How Ukraine sees its future” within the Festival of Ideas – 2021, the participants discussed the moods and dreams of Ukrainians.

Speakers of the event were:

• Evgenia Bliznyuk, sociologist, founder and director of the analytical agency Corestone Group, CEO and co-founder of the Gradus project.
• Andrey Dligach, general director of the Advanter Group, co-founder of the Economic Recovery Center, co-founder of the Board business community, co-founder of the Nova Krania Civic Platform.

The panel discussion was moderated by Denis Poltavets, director of program development of Aspen Institute Kyiv.

During the discussion, Evgenia Blizniuk presented the main results of the survey conducted in 2020-2021 by the Gradus project. The survey covered residents of cities with a population of 50,000 or more. The speaker characterized Ukrainians as “tired optimists”. They have escaped from the suffocating embrace of paternalism and hope for a better future, if not for themselves, then certainly for their children. However, Evgenia noted that Ukrainians are a nation that often acts contrary to sociology. For example, on the eve of the Revolution of Dignity, no studies showed the protest mood of the population.

The panel discussion participants emphasized that personal freedom and entrepreneurship are important for Ukrainians. They are the main values ​​with which our fellow citizens associate positive expectations.

Andrey Dligach noted that it is necessary to join forces with like-minded people, to dream more boldly and to act on a larger scale and proactively. At the same time, the speaker noted that Ukraine still relies too much on others: “We gained independence, but we did not understand how to use it, how to become an influential subject.”

In the end, the speakers emphasized that for further development, we need to learn to objectively evaluate our successes, because without this skill, moving forward is impossible.

“For Ukraine and for our society, the will and courage to demonstrate success, come out with success, verbalize it and show it are very important. If we look, for example, at the strategy of the USA, we will see that for them every step is a victory. In my opinion, this is a very big block for education and for the school: praise children, show and highlight these victories so that in adulthood they appreciate their achievements and do not have the tendency to belittle them,” said Yevgenia Bliznyuk.

Denis Poltavets, in turn, summarized:

“The inability to objectively evaluate one’s successes is equivalent to the inability to act. After all, in this way, a person is constantly in the space of fantasies, which vary from depressing to too iridescent, and which do not correspond to reality at all. Therefore, getting people used to a realistic assessment of what succeeds is no less important than getting people used to a realistic assessment of their mistakes.”

The Festival of Ideas – 2021 was held by Aspen Institute Kyiv in partnership with Impact Hub Odessa.

You can view the full recording of the discussion at the link: Як Україна бачить своє майбутнє: результати дослідження – YouTube