Review of Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War by Volodymyr Ishchenko (Verso, 2024)
Towards the Abyss is an important corrective to analyses of Ukraine predominantly centered on ethnicity and personality. Author Volodymyr Ishchenko advances a class analysis of both Putinism and Ukrainian society. Based on his sociological research, he points out that a class divide is more important in understanding the dynamics of the East/West cleavage in Ukraine than ethnic dynamics. Providing a blow-by-blow account of the events since 2014, the book would be good for readers who haven’t been following the conflict closely and want to catch up on the details — or conversely, for those who want to refresh their memory regarding all the steps that led up to the invasion.
A single argument cuts across the essays, articles, and interviews that Verso Books compiled for this volume: from the breakup of the Soviet Union until Vladimir Putin’s invasion, neither the ruling oligarchs nor their opponents had an agenda or a worldview that could truly unite Ukraine. Even though the invasion and the response to it offered a fleeting chance to build a uniting vision for the country, Ukraine’s social balances and leadership structures have so far prevented a positive outcome.
The two camps that have defined Ukraine’s recent history, explains Ishchenko, consist, on the one side, of professionals allied with transnational capital and Western institutions who want a rules-based market order, and on the other oligarchs who…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Cihan Tuğal
