Churches, Politics, and Ideological Struggles in Ukraine: The Case of the Euromaidan Protests (2013–2014)

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article offers an analysis of the key differences in the representations of the Euromaidan protests of 2013–2014 in the discourses of two significant religious organizations of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). Using as primary source material media interviews and public statements of religious figures, the present study traces the basic argumentative strategies employed by these churches either for legitimating direct involvement in the protest or, vice versa, for justifying complete abstention from participating in it. It demonstrates that while the UGCC’s involvement helped enhance the legitimacy of the Euromaidan by constructing its quasi-religious image, the UOC-MP’s alleged neutrality played into the hand of the state authorities by lessening the impression of the unity of the Ukrainian population in opposition to the political regime and by undermining the high moral ground claims of the protestors.