Empowering Ukraine: Lessons Learned
Reflections on Ukraine: June 29, 2024
Halfway through the third year of the Russian-Ukrainian war, it is time for Ukrainian leaders and their Western supporters to carefully plan the rebuilding process in Ukraine. As world leaders look to the future of Ukraine and how best to support the rebuilding effort there, it will be important to reflect on lessons learned from history. Critical insight can be gained by looking at the collapse of the Communist regime in Russia in 1991, and the fact that no one rose to defend it. It has been 30 years since the Cold War peacefully came to an end, and it is vital to consider the hard lessons that resulted in Russia becoming an “imitation democracy,” and eventually an autocratic state, under Vladimir Putin.
For those of us who lived and worked in Russia during the early 1990s, three significant failures stand out. First, secular analysts who wrote about the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) largely ignored the religious impact of Russian and eastern European dissidents who were circulating publications and expressing a desire for freedom of religion and freedom of assembly. The persecution of Christians and other religious leaders in Russia was largely overlooked in the West, but this resistance against Soviet repression was a major contributor to the loss of popular support for the Communist Party.
A second factor was the decision encouraged by Western scholars and Russian elites to take dramatic steps to dismantle the centralized Russian economy, while generating free market policies to replace Soviet standards and practices. I will never forget the lines of elderly Russians standing on the streets trying to sell jewelry and articles of clothes to buy food when inflation radically increased prices. Repeated currency adjustments wiped out the savings of most Russians and their pleas for assistance from the Yeltsin government were ignored.
A related failure was the seizure of power by the ruling elites in Moscow and St. Petersburg, who had no interest in empowering the Russian people and giving them some sense of ownership in the rebuilding of their country. Government leaders, mostly former Communist Party bureaucrats, had little interest in empowering their people and giving them an understanding of the role they could play in a rebuilt Russia.
When the Christian Bridge delegation of nineteen Evangelical Christian leaders was invited by Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to visit Moscow in 1991, each of us heard from members of the Supreme Soviet (Russia’s parliament), Russian journalists, academic leaders, and people active in civil society networks that Communism had completely failed. Repeatedly, we heard the phrase: “We have no hope for the future.” We also listened as Gorbachev openly expressed his desire that religion play an important role in rebuilding the moral and ethical culture of Russia and abolishing the rampant corruption that pervaded every aspect of their life.
During the next few years of Yeltsin’s presidency in the early 1990s, no effort was made to mobilize the involvement of the people in governing the country. In addition, the vast network of churches spread across the country were not equipped to help those who were suffering from all the radical changes that did not protect the vulnerable, especially the elderly and the poor.
When the war in Ukraine ends and the rebuilding begins – a process that is already underway – Ukrainian leaders can learn from what happened in Russia and take steps to avoid that outcome and to create a bright and unified future for Ukraine. The heroism of the Ukrainian people is truly remarkable, and their willingness to defend themselves against a much larger neighbor offers reason for hope about their country’s future.
The role of university and seminary students as soldiers, volunteers, and caregivers is strong evidence that the “Independence Generation” is committed to Ukraine’s future freedom from foreign interference. They also value their cultural and religious diversity. Their heroism should be recognized and their involvement in civil society encouraged. The ecumenical work of Orthodox, Greek Catholics, and Protestants, as well as others, should be celebrated for how they cared for those who were the most vulnerable. The strength of Ukraine’s civil society, which was unknown in Russia when Communism collapsed, needs to be a principal focus of the rebuilding process and not be sidelined as western bankers and financial advisors pour into the country and make decisions about how outside funding is used.
An additional distinctive of Ukraine, according to a 2022 survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, is that 85% of Ukrainians identified as Christians – 72% identified themselves as Eastern Orthodox, 9% as Catholics (8% Eastern-rite and 1% Latin-rite) and 4% as Protestants (mostly from Baptist and Pentecostal denominations). Ukraine’s example is an important model for other neighboring states who are seeking to build a democracy, a free market economy, and a society where religious and cultural diversity is valued, unlike in Russia, Hungary and other former Soviet republics.
Helpful resource: John A. Bernbaum & Philip Yancey, What Went Wrong? Russia’s Lost Opportunity and the Path to Ukraine (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2024).