2022.03.05 乌克兰受到了西方的启发

shiyi18

By Invitation | Russia and Ukraine
Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, considers his national identity
Ukraine has been inspired by the West—and should inspire it in turn

Mar 5th 2022


It is horrifying to write about Ukraine now. Kyiv, our capital, faces missiles. News arrives that a close friend has died defending it. Reports show strikes on residential areas, hospitals and cities’ central squares. We do not know how much longer this reality will last. If you’re staying in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv or other cities, you cannot be sure that you will be alive in a month.

It is important that the world understands one thing: Ukraine is resisting and will continue to do so. It has an incredible spirit of independence. This spirit has been there for centuries but is showing itself now in full strength. Freedom is the key trait of Ukraine’s identity as a political nation.


Ukrainian political culture is based upon anti-tyrannical, democratic and republican values. Most Russians tend to approve of their tsar; Ukrainians identify with opposition to him. Within politics they see a social contract. This harks back to the early modern era, when the Ukrainian warrior class known as Cossacks made agreements with their leaders which ensured recognition of their rights and freedoms. This mode of thinking runs deep and it is impossible to eradicate. The Cossack, a free warrior on the open steppe, is one of the symbols of Ukrainian identity.

Ukraine is also a political nation. It is not centred exclusively on any single ethnic, linguistic or religious identity. It is pluralistic. You can be a Ukrainian speaker, Russian speaker or a speaker of Crimean Tatar and be ready to defend Ukraine. You can be Ukrainian Orthodox, Greek-Catholic, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Muslim or Jewish and stand shoulder to shoulder for this country. Ukrainians have a Russian-speaking president who has Jewish origins. When Russia’s president Vladimir Putin calls such people “Nazis”, he shows his own bigotry.

Ukrainians are different from Russians culturally. The Ukrainian language is not the same (it has more words in common with Belarusian and Polish than with Russian), its culture is different, its music is different, its visual codes and national clothes are different. When Mr Putin says that Ukrainians and Russians are the same people he is not just wrong. He is going beyond what Soviet propagandists claimed. They accepted the difference between Ukrainians, Russians and Belarussians. Mr Putin is more archaic than the Soviet Union. He is reverting to the 19th-century Russian empire with its idea that there is a common “Russian” nation encompassing “great Russians”, “little Russians” (Ukrainians) and “white Russians” (Belarussians). This is an illusion, in which he lives. It is a criminal illusion which pushes him to declare war in Ukraine and send missiles and airstrikes to cities such as Kharkiv, where Russian is spoken more than any other language.


Unlike today’s Russians, Ukrainians do not harbour nostalgia. The past is mostly a painful experience for us, therefore we do not look back to any golden age. You cannot win elections with a slogan such as “Make Ukraine great again”. “Again” is a bad word for us: when we use it, it is often to say “never again” about the crimes of the past. We look more to the future than the past.

Ukraine’s recent history is a story about the values of dignity moving east. Dignity, a Roman word referring to the inalienable qualities of the upper classes, gradually evolved throughout the Western world to encapsulate fundamental rights and freedoms. Today’s Ukraine is a country in which the values of dignity for all are taking root. This provokes horror in today’s Russia, which wants to re-establish authoritarian values, and where the only person with dignity is the tsar or dictator.

Our sense of Ukrainian identity has taken on a greater intensity in the past few years. Russian aggression since 2014 helped consolidate it among people who might earlier have felt close to Russian culture or Russia’s information space. Mr Putin’s invasion will accelerate this process. When Russians shell residential buildings and destroy the central square in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, every shot diminishes the number of those who have sympathy with Russia. People who felt they belonged in the Russian cultural space ten years ago, feel a strong Ukrainian identity now. They might speak Russian or go to the Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church. But they are Ukrainians. Russia has lost the battle for their hearts and minds.

Finally, Ukrainians increasingly want to be with Europe. Some 86% support EU membership and 76% back NATO accession. Unlike Russians, many of whom consider the West their enemy, Ukrainians mostly feel European and want to be a part of the West. As tanks bear down upon them, they are bringing a new energy to European values and are showing incredible courage in defending them.

This remarkable transformation is not only a transformation of Ukrainian identity. It is the extension of European values to the east. It is a story of the strength of the European idea— which today’s Europe sometimes shies away from. It is a story of European humanism, rooted in Ancient Greek philosophy, through Roman republicanism, to Italian city-republics, the ideas of the Enlightenment and of anti-Nazi resistance. Through their resistance to Mr Putin’s empire, Ukrainians are showing that this humanist tradition has the strength, energy and courage to defend itself. ■

Volodymyr Yermolenko is a philosopher and the editor of Ukraine World, an english-language news outlet.



应邀参加｜俄罗斯和乌克兰
乌克兰哲学家沃洛基米尔-叶尔莫连科认为他的民族特性
乌克兰受到了西方的启发--应该反过来启发它

2022年3月5日



现在写关于乌克兰的文章是很可怕的。基辅，我们的首都，面临着导弹。有消息称，一位亲密的朋友在保卫首都时牺牲了。报告显示，居民区、医院和城市中心广场遭到袭击。我们不知道这种现实会持续多久。如果你呆在基辅、哈尔科夫、切尔尼戈夫或其他城市，你无法确定你在一个月内是否还活着。

重要的是，世界要明白一件事：乌克兰正在抵抗，并将继续抵抗。它有一种令人难以置信的独立精神。这种精神已经存在了几个世纪，但现在正全力以赴地展示自己。自由是乌克兰作为一个政治国家身份的关键特质。


乌克兰的政治文化是建立在反叛乱、民主和共和主义的价值观之上。大多数俄罗斯人倾向于赞同他们的沙皇；乌克兰人则认同反对沙皇。在政治中，他们看到了一个社会契约。这可以追溯到现代早期，当时被称为哥萨克的乌克兰战士阶层与他们的领导人达成协议，确保他们的权利和自由得到承认。这种思维模式根深蒂固，不可能根除。哥萨克是开阔草原上的自由战士，是乌克兰身份的象征之一。

乌克兰也是一个政治国家。它不完全以任何单一的民族、语言或宗教身份为中心。它是多元化的。你可以是一个讲乌克兰语的人，讲俄语的人或讲克里米亚鞑靼语的人，并准备好保卫乌克兰。你可以是乌克兰东正教徒、希腊天主教徒、罗马天主教徒、新教徒、穆斯林或犹太人，并为这个国家并肩作战。乌克兰人有一个讲俄语的总统，他有犹太血统。当俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔-普京称这种人为 "纳粹 "时，他显示了自己的偏执。

乌克兰人在文化上与俄罗斯人不同。乌克兰语言不一样（它与白俄罗斯语和波兰语的共同词汇多于俄语），它的文化不一样，它的音乐不一样，它的视觉代码和民族服装也不一样。当普京先生说乌克兰人和俄罗斯人是同一个民族时，他不仅仅是错了。他超越了苏联宣传者的说法。他们接受了乌克兰人、俄罗斯人和白俄罗斯人之间的差异。普京先生比苏联更古板。他回到了19世纪的俄罗斯帝国，认为有一个共同的 "俄罗斯 "民族，包括 "大俄罗斯人"、"小俄罗斯人"（乌克兰人）和 "白俄罗斯人"（白俄罗斯人）。这是一种幻觉，他生活在其中。这是一个罪恶的幻觉，促使他在乌克兰宣战，并向哈尔科夫等城市发送导弹和空袭，在那里，俄语比任何其他语言更受欢迎。


与今天的俄罗斯人不同，乌克兰人并不怀有怀旧情结。过去对我们来说大多是痛苦的经历，因此我们不回首任何黄金时代。你不可能用 "让乌克兰再次伟大 "这样的口号赢得选举。对我们来说，"再次 "是一个不好的词：当我们使用它时，往往是对过去的罪行说 "再也不"。我们更多关注的是未来而不是过去。

乌克兰最近的历史是一个关于尊严价值东移的故事。尊严是一个罗马词，指的是上层社会不可剥夺的品质，在整个西方世界逐渐演变为囊括了基本权利和自由。今天的乌克兰是一个人人享有尊严的价值观正在扎根的国家。这在今天的俄罗斯引起了惊恐，它想重新建立专制的价值观，在那里唯一有尊严的人是沙皇或独裁者。

我们对乌克兰的认同感在过去几年中更加强烈。自2014年以来，俄罗斯的侵略帮助巩固了它在人们中的地位，这些人早先可能觉得与俄罗斯文化或俄罗斯的信息空间很接近。普京先生的入侵将加速这一进程。当俄罗斯人炮击居民楼并摧毁乌克兰东部哈尔科夫的中心广场时，每一声枪响都会减少同情俄罗斯的人的数量。十年前觉得自己属于俄罗斯文化空间的人，现在觉得自己有强烈的乌克兰身份。他们可能会说俄语或去与俄罗斯有联系的乌克兰东正教会。但他们是乌克兰人。俄罗斯在争夺他们的心智方面已经输了。

最后，乌克兰人越来越希望与欧洲在一起。约86%的人支持加入欧盟，76%的人支持加入北约。与俄罗斯人不同，他们中的许多人认为西方是他们的敌人，而乌克兰人大多觉得自己是欧洲人，希望成为西方的一部分。当坦克向他们压来时，他们为欧洲的价值观带来了新的活力，并在捍卫这些价值观方面表现出令人难以置信的勇气。

这种显著的转变不仅是乌克兰身份的转变。它是欧洲价值观向东部的延伸。这是一个关于欧洲理念的力量的故事--今天的欧洲有时会回避这个问题。这是一个欧洲人文主义的故事，根植于古希腊哲学，通过罗马共和主义，到意大利城市共和国，启蒙运动的思想和反纳粹的抵抗。通过对普京先生的帝国的抵抗，乌克兰人正在表明，这种人文主义传统有力量、能量和勇气来捍卫自己。■

沃洛迪米尔-叶尔莫连科是一名哲学家，也是英语新闻媒体《乌克兰世界》的编辑。