Unfortunately, this column has to be written on the day when the Rada “failed eurointegration.” I try to avoid this topic, since I don’t see any significance or prospects in it, but there’s no getting around it here—journalism has its laws, and when it’s your turn to write a column, it’s hard to ignore an event everyone’s talking about.
In general, they won’t escape association with it. And they will even join the EU, if it hasn’t fallen apart by then, or Russia hasn’t. Because the whole point of these integrations is pressure from Russia. As long as that continues, Ukrainian leadership will keep moving toward the leadership in Brussels. Because leaders, like all of us, choose where it’s better and where children can study. If Yanukovych doesn’t sign—the one who comes after him will. This is simply inevitable.
That’s about leadership. Its prospects are bright. What’s happening to us is not so bright, quite the opposite. All this saga has once again revealed the astonishing infantilism of Ukrainian society. Because it’s no secret that “eurointegration” here means only visa-free travel plus hopes that the leadership in Brussels will discipline the leadership in Kyiv. It’s very sad to watch this. Because it’s obvious that if we ourselves can’t “discipline” our leaders, another set of leaders won’t help. The solution to the problem of Yanukoviches and everyone who comes after them lies only in how ready we are to stand up for ourselves and not let them meddle in our lives.
It’s sad to watch the Soviet black-and-white worldview thriving. If you’re against the EU—then you’re for the Customs Union. Why? Because you’re against the EU.
It’s sad to read opinions and comments like “you can’t get away with anything in the European Union!"—comments in which Ukrainians clearly express their desire to manage other Ukrainians’ lives and regret that Ukrainian officials can’t give them this pleasure, which is why European officials are needed, who at least won’t let anyone get away with anything.
But the saddest and funniest thing is that grown adults seriously believe that European quality of life is the merit of bureaucrats and state decrees. It’s surprising that these people, advocating for eurointegration and even “European values,” don’t know what those values are or how they came about. There is a surprising irony in this, because what we call the “West” or “Europe” is the result of favorable coincidences and conscious efforts, the essence of which comes down precisely to the weakness of the state and the strength of the individual. Nowhere else in the world, where states existed, were people as free as they were in the West. I repeat, there were many reasons for this, and the main one, perhaps, is the high competition among European powers within one “state” territory—you had cities, barons, the church, kings, guilds, corporations, as well as competing courts and many sources of law. All this cabal was forced to fight each other, which meant ordinary people had time to work for themselves and room for social institutions to emerge and strengthen. Nowhere else was there such a situation. Later, national states arose in Europe, but the territory of civil society was already too large for them to meet the fate of Eastern despotisms. And this territory remains large enough for us to speak of Europe as a prosperous and desirable place.
Therefore, for “integration into Europe,” you don’t need to join anything. You simply need to be Europe—that is, to be free, hardworking, not to stick your nose into your neighbor’s business, and be ready to stand up for what’s yours. But alas. If Ukrainians spent on the struggle for their freedom as much time as they spend making other Ukrainians do what they want, no one would have talked about “eurointegration” for long. Kyiv would be filled with migrant workers from Moscow, and Kohl with Kwaśniewski would be persuading them to join the EU, promising all sorts of benefits and preferences. But they would be politely refused every time, because freedom is more expensive in the most literal sense. In general, it’s clear that we are not destined to be rich and free, but to be in the European Union. Not fate.