{"id":12396,"date":"2014-05-20T21:18:23","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T21:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uacrisis.org\/?p=2838"},"modified":"2014-06-27T03:13:38","modified_gmt":"2014-06-27T01:13:38","slug":"2838-timothy-snyder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/2838-timothy-snyder","title":{"rendered":"Timothy Snyder: Democracy Is Action, Not Something to Be Taken for Granted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyiv, 20 May 2014 \u2013 <\/i><\/b>Ukraine has proven that it is a pluralistic and democratic country, but the struggle for democratic values continues. This was the general sentiment expressed at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center<\/em> during the closing press briefing <\/em>of the conference \u201cUkraine: Thinking Together<\/i>\u201d<\/span>, which brought together over 30 leading intellectuals <\/em>from Ukraine, Russia, the United States, France, Germany, Poland, and elsewhere. The <\/em>speakers at the briefing expressed a shared view that what is happening in Ukraine is a struggle in which intellectuals around the world also have to participate.<\/i><\/p>\n

The press briefing began with conference organizers expressing their satisfaction with the results of the five-day symposium, which drew enormous public and media interest.<\/p>\n

Professor Timothy Snyder<\/b> of Yale said: \u201cWe came here to express solidarity with our Ukrainian colleagues, but we\u2019ve been touched by the ways they have expressed solidarity with us. We have been touched and impressed not only by the way Ukrainians took part as our equals, and very often our superiors, in our discussions of human rights, of Europe, of culture after the Maidan, of geo-politics, of totalitarianism, of history and memory. We have been touched by the ways they usually know more about us than we know about them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that the Maidan is one of the primary sites in the history of democracy,\u201d said <\/b><\/em>Leon Wieseltier<\/b>, literary editor of the magazine The New Republic<\/i>. \u201cWhen the history of democracy comes to be written, what happened there, in that place, will be one of the \u2018sacred\u2019 sites\u2026 a secular \u2018sacred\u2019 site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wieseltier<\/b><\/em> said he was moved \u201cby the diversity of opinion and by the fortitude of the participants\u201d. Going beyond the conference, he also remarked: \u201c<\/em>Before I came here, one had the impression that democracy and pluralism in Kyiv and in Ukraine, but in Kyiv especially, was a project, was a hypothesis, was an experiment, was a dream. Then I came to Kyiv, and I saw that it\u2019s not at all a dream, it\u2019s a reality. It already exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine, the speakers underscored the significance of elections in the democratic process. <\/em>\u201cWe have a country, Ukraine, where elections are generally meaningful, and neighbors in a country, Russia, where they are a kind of theater,\u201d said Snyder. \u201c<\/strong>These elections must happen so that the idea of elections as a personal act can continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snyder <\/b>went on to add: \u201cBecause these elections are so important, because elections are something that have to be fought for, because democracy is a kind of action, it\u2019s not something you can take for granted, what we are going to observe are acts of real courage. \u2026 We are going to see courageous grandmothers voting, we are going to see courageous young people voting, even though there\u2019s resistance to voting. We are going to see the way voting is an act of courage.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor Karl Schl\u00f6gel<\/b>, one of Germany\u2019s leading experts on Russian history and German-Russian relations, echoed Snyder\u2019s point, saying, \u201cI can\u2019t imagine how people in a week will go to the polling stations to hand in their ballots. It seems to me that this will really require great courage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The speakers at the briefing rejected assertions made in Russian media that the Maidan was dominated by fascists. Schl\u00f6gel <\/b>remarked: \u201cWhat I could learn from this conference is that [the Russian claim of fascism in Ukraine] is first of all a propaganda lie. Everybody knows that on Maidan and at other meetings there were some segments that were radical and may even have had fascist or nationalistic elements, but\u00a0everybody knows who has been reporting on this since November that this was not a fascist or a nationalistic movement, but a democratic movement.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Wieseltier<\/b> went even further, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s obvious that the authors of the charge that Ukrainians are fascists are themselves fascists, and that it\u2019s to disguise the fascist nature of the regime in Moscow that the regime in Moscow would like people to think there are fascists here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to a question regarding German perceptions of fascism in Ukraine, Snyder <\/b>suggested three sources for what he called a \u201cmoral crisis\u201d in German perceptions towards Ukraine and susceptibility to the Russian line. \u201cOne of them is the very powerful desire to do nothing,\u201d he said. \u201cIf there are \u2018fascists\u2019 on the Maidan, then it is okay to do nothing. There is a certain amount of shame if one honestly looks at the people who are actually willing to take risks and die for the very things that we take for granted every day. \u2018Fascism\u2019 is a label that allows Germans to do nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The perception of Ukraine as a colony also persists, Snyder<\/b> said: \u201cThis territory, according to Hitler, was populated by sub-humans. It is a terrifying thing to observe how former chancellors discuss Ukraine as though it were not a real state and claim Ukrainians as a people are not a real people as others. That\u2019s the continuation of precisely the colonial way of seeing the world that Germany was supposed to have overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as you accept that Germany is to do nothing, as soon as you accept that Ukraine is not a real state and Ukrainians are not real people, then you have moved very close to this Russian geo-political position, then you say the Russians have \u2018legitimate interests\u2019, that Russia is not a country like other countries. As soon as you accept that, you are in a world of geo-politics and power, as opposed to a world of European norms and law,\u201d Snyder<\/b> noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we will have a long battle,\u201d said Schl\u00f6gel. \u201cAnd there will be battles that will take place in the capitals of other countries and North America.\u201d He was, however, optimistic how Ukraine\u2019s struggle would end: \u201cThe chance of winning this battle is good. I\u2019m convinced and I have a feeling that your struggle here will find support not only from states and heads of state, but from the people. We intellectuals have to discuss what means we have and how to support your struggle.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Briefing Speakers:<\/b><\/p>\n

Timothy Snyder<\/b> is the Bird White Housum Professor of History at Yale University and permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.<\/p>\n

Leon Wieseltier<\/b> has been the literary editor of The New Republic<\/i> magazine since 1983. He is the author of Kaddish<\/i> and numerous articles on culture and politics, foreign policy and human rights, Israel and Jewish history.<\/p>\n

Karl Schl\u00f6gel is a <\/strong>German historian. From 1990 until 1994, he taught East European history at Konstanz University and, from 1994 until his retirement in April 2013, at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt on the Oder.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

The conference \u201cUkraine: Thinking Together<\/b>\u201d was held in Kyiv from 15-19 May 2014. It b<\/strong>rought together over 25 leading figures from the worlds of art, literature, and scholarship from around the globe for a series of public discussions with their Ukrainian colleagues about the meaning of Ukrainian pluralism for the future of Europe, Russia, and the world. This unprecedented encounter between international and Ukrainian intellectuals was initiated by Leon Wieseltier of The New Republic<\/i> and Timothy Snyder of Yale University. Among the conference were Bernard-Henri L\u00e9vy, Adam Michnik, Ivan Krastev, Bernard Kouchner, Wolf Biermann, Viktor Erofeyev, Agnieszka Holland, Slavenka Drakuli\u0107, and Karel Schwarzenberg.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

The Ukraine Crisis Media Center<\/b> was founded in March 2014 by leading Ukrainian experts in international relations, communications, and public relations. The center was launched to provide the international community with objective information about events in Ukraine and threats to national security, particularly in the military, political, economic, energy and humanitarian spheres. The center, on a 24\/7 basis, provides support to all the media who cover events in Ukraine. It is located in Hotel Ukraina (4 Instytutska Street, Kyiv), 3rd floor. The hotline is +38050 157 8159 or +38050 157 8423; fax: +38044 593 7407, e-mail: press@uacrisis.org<\/a>. For more information please visit or www.uacrisis.org<\/a> or follow us on www.twitter.com\/uacrisis<\/a>; www.facebook.com\/uacrisis<\/a>, or www.youtube.com\/user\/UACrisisMediaCenter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\n\t\t\"\"\t\t\n\t\t\tView Gallery<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t7 images\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/a>\n<\/figure>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyiv, 20 May 2014 \u2013 Ukraine has proven that it is a pluralistic and democratic country, but the struggle for democratic values continues. This was the general sentiment expressed at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center during the closing press briefing of the conference \u201cUkraine: Thinking Together\u201d, which brought together over 30 leading intellectuals from Ukraine, […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":12397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":[],"categories":[705],"tags":[803],"section":[648],"form":[31956],"yoast_head":"\nTimothy Snyder: Democracy Is Action, Not Something to Be Taken for Granted | UACRISIS.ORG<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CR6m96YYU14; Kyiv, 20 May 2014 \u2013 Ukraine has proven that it is a pluralistic and democratic country, but the struggle for | Uacrisis.org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/2838-timothy-snyder\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Timothy Snyder: Democracy Is Action, Not Something to Be Taken for Granted | UACRISIS.ORG\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CR6m96YYU14; 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