New accents by Iryna Farion

Iryna Farion, who was elected in one of Lviv constituencies, has delivered a remarkable speech recently. This public figure is famous for her radical statements and appeals that enrage one part of the society and reflect views of the other part at the same time, which is the reason why her statements always draw response. However, this time, her message was of an absolutely different nature, and it should be heard by the whole society. In particular, at the press conference in the Vysoky Zamok editorial office, Farion said: “The Czech are the Slavic people that have always been the most puristical when it came to language issues. They have resisted German language, 300 years of the Germans’ rule have formed this resistance. But why did the Czech manage to win? Because they left the purely national resistance niche and moved to more universal categories. They overcame the constant complex of fighting against the Germans. We have the same here, a constant complex of fighting against the Russians. We don’t need to fight other people, we need to fight our own weaknesses instead,” portal.lviv.ua quotes the politician.

“ONE SHOULD NEVER LOOK FOR EXTERNAL ENEMIES, THOUGH EVERY NATION DOES HAVE THEM”

Volodymyr SHEVCHENKO, Ph.D. in History, professor:

“Iryna Farion hit the nail on the head with the last sentence of her speech. One should never look for external enemies, even though every nation does have them. There are everlasting values that one should be guided by instead. And one should fight their own flaws, which are partially reflected in the fact that the everlasting values are ignored by someone, be it a part of the society or separate individuals. In particular, I am talking about the scriptural values: you shall not steal, you shall not kill, and so on. I will not comment upon Iryna Farion’s statement about the Czech Republic and the Germans, I do not think it is 100 percent correct, but the last sentence about the need to fight one’s own weaknesses deserves attention.”

“THE FIGHT ‘FOR’ SOMETHING IS MORE PRODUCTIVE AND EFFECTIVE”

Oleh POKALCHUK, social psychologist:

“I would not talk about the problem of fighting the Russians as about some sort of complex, but in general, Farion’s statement is correct: all our problems come from our heads. The complex of fighting any external enemy (not just the Russians) is a typical feature of any ethnic group that is on the way of turning into a nation. Since historically Ukrainian ethnos was formed as a reaction to pressure of external factors, from the ancient times to the Soviet Union, we have developed a habit of reacting to external pressure. Before, for example, the western part of Ukraine used to fight the Polish influence. Now, due to the fact that our politics is oriented on the EU, this information is suppressed in order to keep the tone of relations politically correct. Similarly, inhabitants of the southern lands fought against Romanians or Magyars. All these historic examples are widely known. Russian compound is only one of many border issues that shape the tendency of reaction to external pressure and spur the fight ‘against.’ Of course, the fight ‘for’ is more productive and effective.

“The Finns can also be added to the example of the Czech that Iryna Farion made. But the Finns have left a lot of things behind (first of all, their national mythology, which was a part of the national culture) and moved on.

“In general, the complex of fighting against the Russians exists in the heads of a certain number of people. The majority of Ukrainians have no idea that they have to ‘fight against the wicked Muscovites.’ People are fighting in order to survive. And if they have to fight Russians for that, they will do it.”