Tracing the Donbas miner movement’s role in Ukraine’s transition between 1989 and 1994 Cover Image

Tracing the Donbas miner movement’s role in Ukraine’s transition between 1989 and 1994
Tracing the Donbas miner movement’s role in Ukraine’s transition between 1989 and 1994

Author(s): Paweł Downarowicz
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Social Sciences, Political Sciences, Civil Society, Governance, Sociology, Political history, Social history, Recent History (1900 till today), Government/Political systems, Security and defense, Nationalism Studies, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Inter-Ethnic Relations, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Social Norms / Social Control, Sociology of Politics, Politics of History/Memory, Politics and Identity
Published by: Wydział Socjologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: post-communist transition; party cleavages; regional identity; Ukraine; Donbas; miner strike

Summary/Abstract: The article explores the impact of the miner strike movement in Donbas on the post--communist transition in Ukraine from 1989 to 1994. By focusing on the Donbas strike movement, its relationship with the nationalist intelligentsia, and a later co-optation of its mobilizing potential by regional elites, it provides an analysis of the agency of bottom-up social forces operating within a particular cultural framework during the transition period. The striking miners played a significant role in the reclamation of Ukrainian independence in 1991. Building on this momentum, Donbas politicians were able to politicize the already existing socio-cultural diversity of Ukrainian society and to define the fundamental political cleavage in Ukraine in self-serving, regionalist terms.

  • Issue Year: 17/2022
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 73-91
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: English
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