21 November 2023 marks the tenth anniversary of Maidan protests in Ukraine, which started in autumn 2013 and quickly transformed into a full-scale revolution. These historic events were later named the Revolution of Dignity. In his opinion piece for The Ukrainian Week, Yuriy Syrotyuk, a junior sergeant and grenadier in the 5th Separate Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, reflects on Ukraine’s decade-long struggle for liberation and survival. Yuriy Syroyutk is also a member of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) seventh convocation and the director of the Non-Governmental Analytical Center Ukrainian Studies of Strategic Research. He also coined the term ‘Revolution of Dignity’.
On the tenth anniversary of the Revolution of Dignity, we were fortunate enough to experience an exceptionally warm autumn. Sometimes, it seems that it’s the blood of our defenders spilling on the ground and warming it up. Blood on the ground under the blue steppe sky and scorched wheat fields. Sitting in the trenches, listening to the whistle of shrapnel and the buzzing of kamikaze drones, and reflecting on the tenth anniversary of the Revolution of Dignity is both difficult and simple at the same time. It is simple because dignity remains that one thing that the external source cannot seize; it can only be relinquished from within, personally, willingly. Hence, we face the enemy with dignity.
Nevertheless, reflecting on the events of the past decade is gruelling because the revolution has melted into thin air like mist in people’s minds, becoming a bygone phenomenon in the current political space. The ‘Brave New World’, to put it mildly, is not quite the one they fought for and died for. We did not win this revolution; it did not triumph. Yet, we did not lose it. The counter-revolutionaries are already accusing us, yet the history hasn’t condemned us. We are still alive, and we fight.
The Revolution of Dignity, as logical step in a century-long national struggle, has not achieved its ultimate goal – securing the statehood of a Ukrainian nation – yet. Moreover, the so-called ‘iron law of oligarchy’ has worked yet again. The people’s assembly, the celebration of people’s power, were defeated by the oligarchic power. An oligarch in power after the first post-revolutionary elections was the culmination of this phenomenon. Mediocracy triumphed over reality. And the television won over Maidan immediately after Yanukovych’s escape. I ask myself if anything could have been done to prevent this.
A national revolution can only triumph when the nation reclaims its identity, when internal understanding prevails over externally imposed visions. Ten years ago, we witnessed a real-life analogue of the ancient Viche [‘assembly’], the Sich [an autonomous Cossack entity in medieval Ukraine], as a form of governance. All of this gave us a glimpse of hope. Still, populism and ochlocracy triumphed over people’s power. Instead of democracy, we received demonocracy. Ukrainians didn’t even notice how the demands of Maidan were disbanded. The post-revolutionary parliament began reproducing contradictory decisions, masking them under the guise of EU accession requirements. The revolution’s results were rewritten over the course of ten years. Those who didn’t participate were awarded. Those who were innocent were punished.
Another geopolitical rule came into play during this revolution – a revolution in Ukraine has always collided with Russia’s armed aggression. As was rightly noted by Anne Applebaum, an American historian, writer, and journalist, Putin attacked because, in his mind, Ukraine became ‘too Ukrainian’.
The Revolution of Dignity snowballed into a larger geopolitical uprising. It definitively destroyed Russia’s European presence. Russia, most of which now lies beyond the polar circle, has thrown herself into the arms of the geopolitical South. Yesterday, Russia was a regional leader voicing its aspirations for geopolitical domination, and today – it’s a country in isolation. Ukraine, or more precisely, the Ukrainian people, gave a loud slap to Putin. This is why Putin attacks Ukraine so ruthlessly, desperately trying to reclaim Russia’s perceived ‘Europeanness’.
In the tenth year of the war with Russia, the outcome of this struggle is not that evident yet. For a geopolitical uprising to succeed, it must turn into a geopolitical revolution. This also means that halfway measures are not only fruitless but, in fact, they pose a mortal threat to Ukraine as a state. Ukraine’s victory must ultimately destroy the simulacrum of the Russian Empire, creating a space for the independent national states emerging on its former territory. Such crucial changes will indeed cause truly revolutionary geopolitical consequences for Ukraine and the entire world.
Russia naturally perceived the Revolution of Dignity as a ‘geopolitical revolt’ and attempted to brutally crush it, simultaneously appealing to what it called an ‘anti-state coup in Ukraine’ and its alleged right to defend its core interests. To suppress the ‘revolt’, Russia employed hybrid warfare tactics, annexing Crimea as the tribute for ‘disobedience’. To completely subdue the ‘revolt’, Russia hoped to undermine Ukraine as a sovereign state by planting a ticking bomb, creating a Russian enclave in Donbas, preserving the status of the colonial language, Russian, and controlling religious space through the Kremlin-led Moscow Patriarchate.
In its initial phase, Russia’s hybrid war required a hybrid capitulation presented as an illusory peace. The Minsk Agreements became the ideal platform for Russia to accomplish its goals. Legitimising Russia’s right to intervene in Ukraine’s internal affairs meant a de-facto protectorate state and Ukraine’s signal to the West that “things are not black and white”. Moreover, the Minsk Agreements avoided the issue of Crimea’s occupation, placing it out of context, while the absence of armed resistance only affirmed Russia’s alleged right to encroach on Crimea.
At the same time, freezing the war in Ukraine allowed Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine and transfer them to Syria, only increasing its geopolitical appetite.
In Ukraine, meanwhile, active participants of the revolution were bought off, killed, or compromised. The passionate force of Maidan was not enough to break away from the strong pull of the oligarchy. However, the plutocracy played itself when riding the wave of mediocracy and wild populism; a super-populist unexpectedly won the presidential elections. Becoming president, an oligarch’s protege decided to dismantle the old faces and appoint fresh no-names. By flipping the game board and shaking figures, Volodymyr Zelensky inadvertently destroyed the old Putinist game. Putin lost his composure and went all-in, resorting to the open, undisguised armed invasion and believing that Kyiv could be captured within three days. The Revolution of Dignity, which initially suffered defeat internally, continued resistance externally, fighting a liberation war, which continues until today in the East [of Ukraine. – ed]. It is an external extension of the revolution, as it is Ukraine’s war against the colonial Russian empire.
Essentially, it is the second stage of the revolution. However, to secure victory, it is crucial to reflect on past mistakes and avoid them in the future. The revolution cannot stop halfway. It must be decisive and uncompromising. Its participants must be bold and unafraid to cross red lines and ensure the goals are ultimately completed. Post-colonial anti-nationalism must be eradicated. Revolution is not just a willingness to go all the way in; it is the ability to see and lead beyond the horizon. To charge forward without compromise.
Only Russia’s collapse will give Ukrainians a chance to win in this existential war. However, to achieve victory, the audacity alone is not enough. A national liberation struggle and revolution can only be won by a well-established nation. A nation that has restored its identity and historical memory, a nation that succeeded in completely eradicating the remnants of years and years of occupation and colonialism.
That’s why the fifth column launched such a ruthless attack in an attempt to prevent Ukraine from breaking free from all the shackles of colonialism and moving forward. In this war, it is not weapons, technology, or money that eventually play the key role in triumph, but the spirit. Dignity will win over slavery. The Revolution of Dignity has evolved into a war of dignity.
It is crucial that we win not only technologically and politically—there must be a victory of a mindset. Ukraine must prove to the world that concepts such as Ideas, Dignity, and Freedom can bring down complex, unwritten geopolitical schemes. Today, it is still in our hands, and our success depends on our will and our actions.
