Today’s Ukrainian Unrest in Historical Perspective

WHAT IS A MAIDAN, AND WHY ARE PEOPLE PROTESTING AND GETTING SHOT THERE?

Today’s Ukrainian Unrest in Historical Perspective Tuesday, March 4th, 4:30pmKey Hall 0106 

FEATURING

Amb. William Green Miller
Former US Ambassador to Ukraine
Senior Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center

Prof. Vladimir Tismaneanu
Department of Government and Politics
University of Maryland
 

Prof. Oksana Nesterenko
Ukrainian National Law Academy
Kennan Institute Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center

Prof. Karol Soltan
Department of Government and Politics
University of Maryland

Prof. Piotr H. Kosicki
Department of History
University of Maryland

Since the late fall of 2013, Ukrainians have been protesting in the streets of the country’s big cities, with the largest site of protest at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Ukraine’s capital city of Kiev. Since then, protesters have been lambasted, ambushed, arrested, and - just in the past week - shot and killed in the many dozens. Why the protests? Is this a revolution? A civil war in the making? Can even a peaceful outcome prove durable? Is the story just about Ukraine, or about Russia, Europe, and more? Is this a repeat of past Eastern European revolutions (1989, 2005), or something new? This panel brings together top experts on Ukraine and Eastern European revolution, with the goal of explaining to a broad audience what’s going on, with an eye toward past precedent in the region. ALL ARE WELCOME, BUT UNDERGRADS ARE ESPECIALLY ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND.