Empire and totalitarianism kill statehood

Ukrainians today have a much sharper and clearer sense of their own statehood than Russians. The feeling that the state is us is much sharper.

The Ukrainian sense of nationhood and our sense of politics is less dependent on personalities than we used to think. The cult of Zelenskyy is more widespread in the West than in Ukraine because we know that today the nation leads the president, not the other way around. The real leader is the society itself, not any individual. A plurality of local, community leaders.

“The cult of Zelenskyy is more widespread in the West than in Ukraine because we know that today the nation leads the president, not the other way around. The real leader is the society itself, not any individual.”

We are much less dependent on specific personalities. They are important figures, expressions, embodiments at certain times, but they are not a condition sine qua non, a condition without which nothing will happen.

Russians are afraid that if Putin is removed, everything will fall apart. The state will disappear. This is their great fear. That's why they are holding on to Putin and his crimes to the last.

“Centuries of imperial "statehood" have led to a very weak sense of the state among Russians.”

But the paradox is that centuries of imperial "statehood" have led to a very weak sense of the state among Russians. On our northern borders, we have a ruin of a state that hangs by the skin of its teeth on the health of one bald old man. Because empire and totalitarianism kill statehood, not form it.

In our country, however, everything is completely different.

Source

About the author. Volodymyr Yermolenko, writer, head of PEN Ukraine.

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