5 May 2016, 3:00 - 7:30pm
William Mong Hall, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge
As part of an ongoing commitment to the exploration of Polish-Ukrainian issues, Cambridge Polish Studies, Cambridge Ukrainian Studies and the Forum on Geopolitics presented a public symposium on the connections between two popular revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe: the Polish "Solidarity" revolution of the 1980s and the "Maidan" movement (or movements) of post-1991 independent Ukraine.
Speakers included:
Krzysztof Bobiński (President, Unia & Polska)
Zbigniew Bujak (legendary leader of the Solidarity movement)
Paweł Kowal (researcher at the Institute for Political Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences)
Andrii Portnov (historian at Humboldt University)
Marci Shore (intellectual historian at Yale University)
Oksana Zabuzhko (Ukraine's most celebrated contemporary novelist)
Zbigniew Bujak.
Marci Shore.
Andrii Portnov.
Krzysztof Bobinski.
Oksana Zabuzhko.
Paweł Kowal.
In two sessions of presentations and discussion, we examined the legacy of Poland's Solidarity movement and the connections with Ukraine's "Maidan" revolutions, especially the Euromaidan Revolution of 2014. In particular, we asked whether there are lessons to be learned from Poland's successful post-1989 transition, and whether Ukrainian activists can draw on the experience of Poland's anti-communist civil society movement as they attempt to force lasting change to the institutions of a new democracy.
What are the major contextual similarities and differences between the two movements? How did Solidarity manage the transition from civic movement to political force shaping democratic institutions? What is the current significance of Polish support for Ukraine? How have Solidarity veterans - including Zbigniew Bujak - shared their experience with Ukrainian civil society groups? What is the present state of the Ukrainian Revolution and how can it continue to move forward?
Programme
Session 1, 3:00 - 5:00pm: Marci Shore, Krzysztof Bobiński, Andrii Portnov.
Coffee break, 5:00 - 5:30pm.
Session 2, 5:30 - 7:30pm: Zbigniew Bujak, Oksana Zabuzhko, Paweł Kowal.
