Activity of youth movements in Ukraine at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to analyze the evolution of the youth protest movement in Ukraine in the late 1990s - early 2000s. A comparative historical method and an interdisciplinary approach are applied. The author’s scientific contribution consists in the fact that for the first time in Russian historiography, such problems as the role of Ukrainian youth and students in the Revolution on granite and the “Ukraine without Kuchma” campaign are seriously studied, as well as the history of the creation of the youth organization “Pora”, which was destined to play one of the key roles in the Orange revolution in Ukraine at the end of 2004. The author comes to the conclusion that the genesis of the Ukrainian youth protest movement at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries is distinguished by a significant originality, and its result was the emergence of a phenomenon unique for the Ukrainian socio-political space - the organization “Pora”. It is emphasized that this structure was created on the theoretical and practical basis of previous anti-government campaigns, in which Ukrainian youth took a direct part. At the same time, it was guided by the experience of similar foreign movements that had previously successfully applied the methodology of nonviolent struggle against the ruling regimes developed in the West. Like its European associates, “Pora” has made a significant contribution to the victory of the Color revolution in its own state.