Author: Paul R. Huard, Ashland High School (Oregon, USA)
Unit/lesson duration: The lesson is intended for one 85-minute instructional period in a blocked Advanced Placement Humanities course.
The lesson has students assess Russian and Soviet influences upon Ukraine during the Maidan (also known as Revolution of Dignity, 2014). Students read, analyze, and interpret interviews with Maidan’s participants who are asked about the removal of V. Lenin’s statue in various parts of Ukraine during the Maidan. The lesson also has background material, guiding questions, and an extension.
Pre-readings/work for students:
- Timothy Snyder: The Making of Modern Ukraine: Class 20. Maidan and Self-Understanding by Marci Shore, based on her book on Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018.
- Students will take Cornell notes during the viewing, bring questions to class for discussion as they work together to summarize the main points of the video regarding the events of the Maidan and Ukrainian identity.
Teacher background materials:
- Serhii Plokhy, The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine, New York: Basic Boooks, 2015.
In-class plan (brief step-by-step):
- Perform in-class summarization of Maidan and Self-Understanding video.
- Ask summarizing groups to report findings. List on white board, poster paper, or other medium for fellow students to add to personal notes.
- Introduce primary source for analysis.
- Introduce guiding questions.
- Allow in-class reading and analysis in Literature Circles.
- Report findings and responses to guiding questions/discuss student findings and responses.
- Ask “key question”: How do your findings help us answer the Essential Question(s)?
- Assign written response for homework.
Primary materials:
- Selections from Attitudes towards “Leninopad” in interview responses of Euromaidan’s participants, 2013-2014
“Well, my [attitude] is ambiguous: on the one hand, of course, these are symbols of totalitarianism. Euromaidan is happening because we still have sovok [a derogatory name for the USSR] in us. We are squeezing it out. We have to squeeze it out with blood. But on the other hand, a monument in a city is a local community question. It would hurt me if someone came here… monuments or something else and tore them down. If they came from Odessa, or if I visited them and took down their Catherine the Great. It’s unacceptable. It’s a local community issue. Absolutely. Let them decide what they want to do.”
Man, 46 years old, recorded in Lviv, February 6, 2014, Euromaidan and the Orange Revolution participant.
“My emotions say that this is very cool. From a rational point of view, it might be different. Well, if I were there, I would also demolish it, but I would be wearing a mask. I would’ve been on the front line. I have a generally positive attitude. But if I were doing it in public, no, I wouldn’t demolish it. I’d follow the legal procedure, and I would do it. Well, we expect more counteractions to these, perhaps, anti-Maidan events—it’s a part of those counteractions to those Lenin demolitions. I’d work in the legal and educational field so that it would be a system for demolishing the Lenin monuments because there are about a thousand Lenin monuments out there. If we demolish 20, it will be nothing more than an informational occasion. And so, to a greater extent, 90 percent of them are just standing there, that is, it’s just like the monuments to Soviet soldiers in Western Ukraine—they are not demolished because they are tolerant of victims, but no one is looking after these monuments. They have simply lost their symbolic significance. Similarly, Lenin monuments in Ukraine… Our society is ready to rethink places of memory, places of remembrance, and symbolic spaces. That is, in the eyes of many people, especially the older generation, they’ve seen these places change several times… But maybe we should forget about it. Because whoever we put there, everyone will remember Lenin.”
Man, 23 years old, recorded in Lviv, February 10, 2014, activist and one of the organizers of Euromaidan.
“Well, in this regard, the monuments to Lenin were indeed demolished even before Euromaidan, a lot of them, a long period before Euromaidan. And so, I think it was not such a big deal.”
Woman, 19 years old, recorded in Lviv, February 18, 2014, Euromaidan activist.
“I have a positive [attitude]. [Should we erect monuments?] I think we should erect monuments to those people who really made Ukraine famous. To politicians, scientists, and writers. Many people have not yet been immortalized in any way, those who really deserve it. As for me, I would erect a monument to [Nestor Ivanovych] Makhno [a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary] in Kharkiv.
Man, 48 years old, recorded in Kharkiv, February 11, 2014, one of the organizers (speaker) of Euromaidan.
“I think I don’t like these acts of barbarism. I think, after all, the Ukrainian Revolution is beautiful because it managed to omit vandalism. This action did look like vandalism. It was purely symbolic, I mean, without overthrowing symbols, culture can’t change. Well, it just happened. This is how humanity develops. I thought that somehow in the 21st century, it would be possible to overthrow symbols in other ways. Instead, they allowed such an action to take place. And it happened. I think it was wrong in general. Because we lost the supporters of Euromaidan, many, many people and supporters, too, were lost because of this demolition. Instead, purely symbolically, as a person engaged in theater, I’d say that “it was awesome” (laughter). It was really very beautiful. And what can come out of this, what kind of performances, what cultural codes were laid down in this action? They are actually working now, and I’m eagerly waiting for the moment when we will be able to see the results.”
Woman, 35 years old, recorded in Kharkiv, February 14, 2014, active Euromaidan and the Orange Revolution participant.
“I’m fine [with the demolition]. I mean, Lenin, of course, is a tyrant. I read a serious study by our bishop of Kharkiv and Poltava, who explained to the Council of Carthage and the Ecumenical Council that this is the right position from the church’s point of view, the position of demolishing the Lenin monument, that these idols should be destroyed. The other thing is that no matter how much of a revolution this is in general, there are no revolutions without such actions, and It’s always radical. The monuments to Lenin must be destroyed, for sure. Of course, I’d like it to have been done legally so that the city council session could make such a decision, but since the government in Kyiv is illegitimate, the people are the authorities, Article 5 of the Ukrainian Constitution.”
Man, 39 years old, recorded in Kharkiv, February 16, 2014, one of the Euromaidan organizers and the Orange Revolution participant.
