Ukraine’s anti-Maidan movement was more working-class than the pro-EU protests

Evidence

A leaked phone call between Victoria Nuland and US ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt in which she appeared to be helping to select Yatsenyuk as the new prime minister reinforced the belief that this was Western-backed regime change. The toppling of Soviet statues was deeply divisive. Parliament immediately voted to rescind the right to use any language but Ukrainian in an official capacity. Generally speaking, this anti-Maidan movement was more lower-class than the Maidan protesters, and it certainly did not enjoy sympathetic treatment from major Western media. Some demonstrators wanted to signal opposition to the new government; others wanted defense of minority- (mostly Russian-) language rights, and others wanted a version of federalization for the country (a vote on this possibility was scheduled for May, but later canceled), which would devolve some power to regions outside Kyiv. The counter-mobilization had the support of the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU)—which had won more votes than Svoboda in the 2012 elections—and even included some radical leftists who had previously tried their hand on the other side in the early Maidan protests. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 519

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A working-class Ukrainian saw protest for EU association as serving oligarchs. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 463; Left-wing Ukrainians read Europe as social democracy and direct democracy, not mere EU accession — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 488; Maidan protesters were older, richer, Ukrainian-speaking, and surprisingly authoritarian in outlook — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 525

Broader Connections

• Maidan protesters were older, richer, Ukrainian-speaking, and surprisingly authoritarian in outlook #complicates (0.85) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 525