Maidan

The 2013–14 Maidan Revolution, or Revolution of Dignity, was far more than a series of protests: the coalescence of complex social networks formed a powerful grassroots movement that restored democracy to a country slipping into authoritarianism. Maidan gives a carefully researched account of the underbelly of the resistance process, investigating how participants self-organized to create the resistance, why the peaceful movement eventually turned to violence, and how the revolutionary process changed those who came to change the country.

Democratic revolution is a state–society dialogue about rights, and the regime that results depends on the ideas negotiated during revolutionary socialization. Offering an unparalleled opportunity to see that negotiation in action, Maidan draws on more than one hundred personal interviews, oral histories, legal documents, and court hearings. The Ukrainian state used violence and violations of due process to suppress the resistance, thereby declaring new boundaries in rights relations. In turn, the people pushed back in multiple arenas – the protest square, courtrooms, hospitals, churches, and media – to successfully challenge the constitutionality of the state's actions.

Western media accounts tend to oversimplify the Revolution of Dignity as backlash against President Viktor Yanukovych's decision not to sign a European Union agreement. The reality had far deeper implications for the geopolitics of the region. Sophia Wilson's account of the revolution, and the Kremlin propaganda about it, underscores why it is impossible to understand Russia's invasion of Ukraine without first understanding what fuelled the Maidan: the affirmation of democracy and the rooting out of Russian puppet authoritarianism. Sophia Wilson is associate professor of political science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. The 2013–14 Maidan Revolution marked a turning point in Ukrainian history. Sophia Wilson investigates how participants self-organized to create the resistance, why the peaceful movement turned to violence, and how the revolutionary process changed those who came to change the country.
Series editor: Sarah Marsden

Protest, civil resistance, and political violence have rarely been more visible. Nor have they ever involved such a complex web of identities, geographies, and ideologies. This series expands the theoretical and empirical boundaries of research on political conflict to examine the origins, cultures, and practices of resistance. From grassroots activists and those engaged in everyday forms of resistance to social movements to violent militant networks, it considers the full range of actors and the strategies they use to provoke change. The series provides a forum for interdisciplinary work that engages with politics, sociology, anthropology, history, psychology, religious studies, and philosophy. Its ambition is to deepen understanding of the systems of power people encounter and the creative, violent, peaceful, extraordinary, and everyday ways they try to resist, subvert, and overthrow them. How the grassroots victory of the Revolution of Dignity renegotiated the social contract and reaffirmed democracy. "Ukraine's democratic protests of 2013–14 freed the country from the kleptocratic rule of the post-communist elites and set it on the road to European integration, while provoking military aggression from Putin's Russia. Maidan explains what Ukraine has been fighting for and what is at stake for the rest of the world." Serhii Plokhy, author of The Russo-Ukrainian War "Wilson expertly contextualizes Ukraine's pivotal Revolution of Dignity in protest, power, and resistance studies. An important read for those seeking a better understanding of Russia's ongoing aggression and Moscow's false narratives about Ukraine and Ukrainians." Gene Fishel, George Mason University "The Maidan protests of 2013–14 were a pivotal event in recent Ukrainian