Ukrainian philosopher, journalist, and publicist Volodymyr Yermolenko: “We always face the coming back of evil, and the problem is that in Eastern Europe, this evil was never condemned”

Volodymyr Yermolenko is a Ukrainian philosopher, journalist, and publicist. Also, he is a Director of analytics at Internews Ukraine. During the eighth #UkrainianDialogue with Aspen Institute Central Europe, Mr. Yermolenko explained the reason for Russian neo-colonialism and the main difference between Ukrainian and Russian societies.

We overlooked that the Russian Empire still exists

Philosopher stressed the importance of realizing that in the 20th century, we saw the collapse of empires but we overlooked that the Russian Empire still exists. Also, he explained which feature differs Russia from collapsed maritime empires:

— The difference compared with maritime empires to which Europe has been accustomed to is huge because  Russia is a continental Empire. That type persuades not only through colonization, but also through forced assimilation. Therefore, the Russian key narrative is that Ukrainians don’t exist.

Also, because of never being condemned for its mistakes, the Russian Empire still wages colonial wars. That’s why the global community should strive against Putin and his last empire in Europe:

— We often raise a question: how is it all possible in the 21th century? My answer is that we always face the coming back of evil, and the problem is that in Eastern Europe this evil was never condemned. When we try to describe today’s Russia, we talk about faschism, neo-nacizm etc. But we need to understand that this culture of violence known in today’s Russia comes back centuries and centuries deep in history. We don’t understand Putin without Stalin, Stalin without the Russian Empire, the Russian Empire of the 19th century without Peter the Great etc. 

Ukraine is a country that clearly sees its borders, and its center is everywhere. Russia is a country which doesn’t see its borders but heavily depends on its center

Mr. Yermolenko said that there is a misunderstanding of Russia. It has been perceived as a nation-state for many centuries, but it has never been a nation state. This feature differs from Ukraine:

— Russia has never been a nation-state. It has always been an Empire. Empire means you never see your borders and only depend on the center. On the contrary, Ukraine is a country that  clearly sees its borders and is decentralized since the center is everywhere. Russia is a country that does not see its borders but heavily depends on its center.

Volodymyr is convinced that among other values which Ukraine can bring to the world, is highly decentralized spirit of its society: 

— What kind of world are we looking for after Ukraine’s victory? What can Ukraine bring to this world? Among other issues, Ukraine can bring a very interesting factor which is the highly decentralized spirit of society. It is really incredible to see how its horizontal network,l for now, is functioning. 

Ukrainians show that another Eastern Europe is possible

Philosopher underlined that Ukrainians are so effective in volunteering for horizontal movement because it is inscribed in their political tradition. This feature also shows a big difference between Ukrainian and Russian societies:  

—  Ukrainian political culture was overlocked over the past centuries. It was erased by Russian imperial narratives, and if you look at the 19th century discourse, you can see that the concept of Eastern Europe was equalized with the concept of the Russian Empire. Now Ukrainians show that another Eastern Europe is possible. This is a Europe of communities or “hromadas” in Ukrainian. 

In the end, Volodymyr highlighted that Ukraine has already led the world to one more important question: Who is more efficient in this 21th’s century global economy — a big multinational bureaucratic structure, or is it something that has a bottom-up culture of communication of horizontal types?