Analysts who believe Ukraine will be successful in forcing the Russian invaders out of their country often emphasize the impressive fighting capabilities of the Ukrainian armed forces and the expertise of its military leadership. Others stress the massive network of supporting countries in NATO and the European Union who are supplying equipment, ammunition, and training, as well as significant financial support. An additional Ukrainian asset its leadership team, led by its young president Volodymyr Zelensky.
While these observations are accurate, there is a secret strength in Ukraine that deserves more attention: the vitality and energy evident in its civic society. Unlike Russia, where the population is apathetic and uninvolved in public life – and remarkably silent during the mutiny of the Wagner Group, Ukrainians immediately rose to the challenge when Russia attacked in February 2022, and they made it clear that they would give their lives to defend their country from Russia’s intervention.
When the Soviet Union disintegrated in December 1991, 84% of the Ukrainians eligible to vote about the future independence of their country did so, and 92% of them made this choice. Even in Donbas on Russia’s western border, where there were many Russian language speakers, 84% voted for independence. In Crimea, where most of the population were Russians, 54% wanted independence. Both Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin were shocked by this vote. Ukraine was the only one of the fifteen Soviet republics to ask its population for their response to this question of independence, and when Ukraine made it clear that it wanted separation from Russian control, that expedited the collapse of the USSR. No Ukraine, no Soviet Union.
Except for the Baltic states (Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia), in all the other former Soviet republics, Communist Party elites retained a preponderance of power and any democratic reforms were cosmetic. It did not take long for the governing elites to reassert their control of their countries. This was true in Ukraine, but the Orange Revolution of 2004, and especially the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-14, dramatically changed the country’s trajectory.
University students played a major role in both of these revolutions that fought against Russian intervention in Ukraine’s internal life. The students wanted closer ties with Europe and were angry with Ukrainian collaborators who chose to tie Ukraine to Putin’s regime. Following the experience in Poland, in which Adam Michnik challenged the Poles to live “as if they were free persons responsible for their behavior regardless of political constraints,” the protestors in Kyiv’s Maidan Square made the decision to live as if they were free despite police repression and the murder of more than one hundred people by riot police.
On Ukraine’s Independence Day, August 24, 2019, during the first year of Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidency, he said: “Today an entire generation is already formed, born in independent Ukraine. For them, this is the normal way of things. For them there can be no other way. And this is marvelous. Because this generation is our intellectual pillar. . . They think differently, they think in a contemporary way, and that means Ukraine will only move forward.”
The perspective of these university students is shared by the vast majority of Ukrainian people who immediately went into action to defend their country when Russians crossed their border. Officials on the national and local level took the initiative to plan opposition to the invading Russian forces, and even babushkas (grandmothers) yelled at Russian tanks and reported their location to Ukrainian leaders.
Russian armed forces soon encountered “Ukraine’s Other Army” – the country’s civic activists. Oleksandr, a shipping agent in Odesa, is an example of one of these volunteers. He immediately decided to stop his regular job of transporting grain and to begin moving military supplies from the Polish border to the front lines where they were needed. He organized trucks and drivers to make these deliveries “free of charge” before the military could get its logistical networks in place. Once this service was no longer needed, Oleksandr began making bulletproof vests. When asked about his work, he said: “This isn’t just a war between the armies, it’s a war between the entire societies. There is no civil society in Russia, and Russia’s leaders made the mistake of believing that this meant there was no civil society in Ukraine. They were wrong and their military is losing on the battlefield as a result.”
Ivan, who owned a boutique clothing store, decided to organize his workers who chose not to flee the country, and they produced 5,000 specially designed ammunition satchels, as well as several hundred hooded sweatshirts for the Ukrainian army. Local businesses, school teachers, retired folks, and hundreds of university and seminary students and staff joined the effort to back their troops and support vulnerable people caught in the middle of this war. Russia had nothing to match this remarkable support by Ukrainian citizens.
Another example of the dynamic work of Ukrainian civil society is the appeal made by an Alliance of 75 non-government agencies to NATO leaders gathering in Lithuania this week requesting that they commit to inviting Ukraine to join NATO as soon as possible. As “representatives of civil society in Ukraine, we firmly believe that such a commitment will be the most effective instrument for ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, preventing new aggression, maintaining Ukraine’s democratic transformations, and reconstructing Ukraine. . .” This was not a government-sponsored effort, but a decision by private Ukrainian citizens to support their country’s leaders.
Harvard professor Serhii Plokhy made this observation, which is now shared by many commentators about Ukraine: “By repelling the Russian assault and mobilizing itself and half the world in defense of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, Ukraine has ensured its continuing existence as an independent state and nation. . . There are clear indications that the Ukrainian nation will emerge from this war more united and certain of its identity than at any other point in its modern history.” Its courageous soldiers and fearless military leaders, together with the remarkable support of its civil society – a secret strength – are both parts of this amazing Ukrainian struggle for freedom and democracy.