The article analyzes the processes of formation of political traditions of Ukrainian society and political mentality, their impact on public sentiment and political decision-making, which can be both supportive and legitimate basis, and rejection and objection without rational understanding and justification, and a barrier to political and economic development. Ukraine's accession to the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is in line with Ukraine's national interests and the fundamental mental principles generally typical for the Ukrainian people. Ukrainians' choice of the democratic path of development in the community of European countries is one of the main reasons for Russia's current full-scale war in Ukraine. Despite Russia's desire to change this and return Ukraine to its sphere of influence, Ukrainians have consolidated around the idea of victory and the Euro-Atlantic vector of their Motherland. Due to its history and geopolitical position, Ukraine has strong ties with European countries and geographically belongs to Europe. Ukrainian political traditions have a historical basis and are in consonance with fundamental European values. The closeness of Ukrainian political traditions to European ones primarily are in the support of democratic values and freedoms, in persistence and unity in defending justice, in rejection of dictatorial authoritarian practices, in the ability of Ukrainian society to self-organize and build effective horizontal ties, and in individualism. Ukrainians, like Europeans, consider the dignity of the human person as a fundamental value, and violence as unacceptable and humiliating. The Russian-Belarusian narrative about the right of the state to use force against its citizens has not worked in Ukraine. During national revolutions and in times of war, Ukrainians have shown courageous resistance, defending their freedom even at the cost of their lives, and have been admired around the world. These fundamental features of the Ukrainian political mentality contributed to the formation of the Ukrainian political nation, and in combination with the Cossack military traditions, the experience of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and a number of patriotic organizations, they are now influencing the heroic military resistance to the Russian occupiers. However, there is another side: the long stay of Ukrainian lands as part of other state entities had its impact and is also reflected in current political attitudes, preferences, and patterns of behavioral reactions that hinder Ukraine's modernization. Especially destructive was the influence of Russian state entities, the period of being part of the USSR, during which there was an intense extermination of the Ukrainian elite and patriotic activists and their families, banning everything Ukrainian, imposing inferiority complexes, and powerful propaganda that weakened and disorganized Ukrainian society, shaping the consciousness of Homo soveticus, a person with very limited rights and opportunities, a cog in an undemocratic state system. Ukrainians are freeing themselves from this Soviet legacy, and the bitter irony is that the Russian war against Ukraine has contributed to that most of all. The processes of Euro-Atlantic integration require hard work and efforts from both the government and society, not only modernization and qualitative reform of the main spheres of life, but also a certain restructuring of consciousness and lifestyle, ensuring individual responsibility and freedoms. On the one hand, these processes are significantly complicated by the full-scale war with Russia, but on the other hand, the war is also a catalyst for socio-political changes in the Ukrainian political system and more intensive cooperation with the Western world.
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Jan 17, 2025
René V Arcilla 
Just Published
