The 2nd meeting of a newly established Centre for Social and Humanities Research named “Traditionalist perspective” took place on Wednesday, June 4, in Kyiv. The event was held in a seminar format.
The topic of the 2nd “Traditionalist Perspective” seminar, namely “Is authoritarianism worth being afraid of?”, was rather provocative but undoubtedly urgent for Ukraine these days. The participants of the event were the following: Sergiy Shumylo (the Head of the International Centre for Humanitarian Initiatives), Olexandr Maslak (PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy Center for Humanitarian Education in the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), Sergiy Kapranov (PhD, senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies), Oleg Odnorozhenko (PhD, an active leader of the nationalist movement), Eduard Yurchenko (Philosophy lecturer, co-founder of the Ukrainian Traditionalist Club), Ihor Zahrebelnyi (philosopher, writer, member of the Scientific and ideological Centre named after Dmytro Dontsov, Philosophy department advanced student of Poltava National Pedagogical University), Olena Semenyaka (Ukrainian Traditionalist Club coordinator, advanced student of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy), Ihor Garkavenko (philosopher, social activist), Andriy Topchiy (historian, “Facty” (“The facts”) journalist) and some others.
Eduard Yurchenko gave a speech hitting some issues related to the “Traditionalist Perspective” activities and emphasizing the importance of authoritarianism for the current situation in Ukraine. The main stress was made upon the idea that the Ukrainian state should be based rather on the legacy of the Ukrainian Pavlo Skoropadsky State, not on the heritage of the UPR (The Ukrainian People's Republic).
Seminar participants definitely agreed on the view that the Skoropadsky state is a much more attractive historical benchmark than the UPR being “leftist” by its nature. The matter of concern was recognition of Skoropadsky’s state-building achievements and the fact that his state was considered just as a right but not a left project. One more good point was a need to pay more attention to OUN (The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) authoritarian traditions, the general problems of authoritarian power and a “sober” analysis of the current realities. Concerning the last issue Eduard Yurchenko noticed that the idea of a strong authoritarian government is becoming popular among intellectuals and ordinary citizens who expect it to ensure the expected order in the country.
All the participants were unanimous in one point: the continuation of the revolutionary struggle must be finished in the authoritarian dictatorship installation which is necessary just to preserve the independence of Ukraine, the assertion of its subjectivity, the destruction of the criminal-oligarchic regime of internal occupation as well as the launch of a project aimed at preserving national identity and cultivation of specific European values and traditions.
The main subjects of the revolutionary process should be those who now defend the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine, i.e. volunteer nationalists, other patriots and some military organizations.
The seminar ended with a discussion of some technical issues and prospects of the “Traditionalist perspective”. Ukrainian intellectuals representing the right nationalist-conservative wing of a public stream should form a clear revolutionary discourse presenting a program that offers bold ideas to our society, including those ones that perhaps cannot be expressed by our politicians.
