Students set up a tent camp and occupied the Central Square of the capital city Kyiv with political demands, especially that the mandatory military service should be limited to the territory of Ukraine. The hunger strike lasted for 15 days.
@inception
@inception
Nataliya Zubar
The students reached most objectives, the demand about military service was the first satisfied.
@inception
Nataliya Zubar
People started to name the Square “Maidan Nezalezhnosti” or Independence Square.
@inception
Nataliya Zubar
. This name became legit after Ukraine announced its independence. All Maidans started there.
#one
Nataliya Zubar
Missing journalist Georgiy Gongadze was suspected of being assassinated by order of president Kuchma. The government denied his death and introduced media censorship.
#one
Nataliya Zubar
Journalist’s friends set up a tent camp and started an occupation strike.
#one
Nataliya Zubar
. The protests united opposition politicians and NGOs.
#basics
Nataliya Zubar
To break through the government’s information blockade, protest leaders decided to set up a website.
#basics
Maidan – occupation strike at the central square of town (c) 2000Oleksandr Bogomolov Director of Institute of Oriental Studies of Academy of Science of Ukraine
Nataliya Zubar
The linguist Oleksander Bogomolov came up with the name for this website and the term to describe the protest – “Maidan”.
word MaidanOriginally means: square, which hosts fairs and general gatherings
Widely used as toponym all over Ukraine.
Belongs to Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages
#basics
Nataliya Zubar
According to his definition, “Maidan” is an occupation strike in the central square of the city. The “Maidan” website and its administrators (Oleksander and me) were trying to introduce the new meaning of this word for 3 years.
Ukraine without KuchmaDecember 15, 2000 - March 9, 2001
Biggest rally 10.000 peopleProtest ended with clashes with the police.
Term Maidan used for the first time
#one
Nataliya Zubar
President Kuchma served full term. Beheaded Gongadze’s body was found and the trial is continuing.
Orange RevolutionNovember 22, 2004 – January 23, 2005
On the dawn of a cold November day, the tent camp was set up and an occupation strike started to protest the falsified results of President’s Election.
#two
Nataliya Zubar
The Orange Revolution introduced the protest meaning of “Maidan” word into Ukrainian language.
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Kharkiv
Nataliya Zubar
Maidans lasted for weeks in Kyiv and many other cities, including in my native Kharkiv.
#two
Nataliya Zubar
The strike ended with inauguration of President Yuschenko.
#two
Nataliya Zubar
The Orange Revolution combined efforts of political parties and activists groups.
#two
Nataliya Zubar
NGOs played a vital role in maintaining the infrastructure of protests and fundraising.
No to Political CorruptionJuly 2006 – March 2007
Biggest rally 10.000 people
Longest lasting protest action
#three
Nataliya Zubar
After the Parliamentary Election Socialist Party left the democratic coalition, forming majority with the reactionary parties thus violating the promises to electors.
#three
Nataliya Zubar
Tent camp set up with major demand to the President to dismiss the Parliament and to announce new elections.
#three
Nataliya Zubar
After 9 months of protests, the President dismissed the Parliament.
Tax MaidanNovember 16 – December 3, 2010
Biggest rally 20.000 people
Maidan used for the first time as protest name
#four
Nataliya Zubar
Government introduced draft of Tax Code, which could destroy small business in Ukraine.
#four
Nataliya Zubar
Tent camp was set up with demand to veto the Code.
#four
Nataliya Zubar
Protests lasted country wide until government complied with demands partially.
Language MaidanJuly 3 – August 8, 2012
Biggest rally 10.000 people
Dissolved forcefully by the police
#five
Nataliya Zubar
Parliament passed the “Language Law” perceived as a threat to Ukrainian language.
#five
Nataliya Zubar
An occupation strike started in Kyiv and other towns of Ukraine.
#five
Nataliya Zubar
Citizens demanded to recall the law.
#five
Nataliya Zubar
Protest was not successful. It was dismissed with brute police force.
EuroMaidanNovember 21, 2013 - ongoing
Biggest rally 2.000.000 people (counted by BBC)Started with a post on Facebook
100+ people killed by the police
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Nataliya Zubar
The Euromaidan or Revolution of Dignity is the real revolution in terms of political science, as it changes the social order.
#six
Nataliya Zubar
The key of its success is the continuity of protest traditions and the lessons the Ukrainian civic society has learned from every success and failure and repressions.
#six Kharkiv
Nataliya Zubar
Euromaidan was joint action of civic society and politicians.
#six
Human Rights Above All
Nataliya Zubar
However, this time civic society became the major driver forcing politicians to act, when they tried to avoid actions.
#six Kyiv
Nataliya Zubar
This trend continues and the civic society firmly pushes government to reforms.
#six
Politics Goes DigitalSince 2014 Facebook in Ukraine is used by government officials to communicate with citizens.
Many ministries require the staff to work with social media users.
Leading Ukrainian diplomats are active in twitter.
#now
#six
Nataliya Zubar
Euromaidan formed the first volunteer military regiments and developed the broad network of volunteers supporting the military.
#six
#six
Nataliya Zubar
All efforts of politicians to organize Maidans failed. Maidans are fundamentally civic.
#six
Nataliya Zubar
Most students striking during the Revolution on Granite participated in ALL Maidans. Each Maidan involved new organizers who carried the cause further. Communities instrumental to the infrastructure of protests were networking between maidans. The “Maidan” website was one of the major networking tools of civil society for 14 years.Rhetorical question is whether any intelligence service of the world could provide such continuity?Some wonder when the next Maidan will occur in Ukraine. I hope there will be no need for this extreme protest technology as our country is set on a solid path of transit to democracy. However, every new Ukrainian government should know for sure – the Ukrainian people will stand up again, if we see fundamental violations of democracy.We know how to do that.
Nataliya ZubarMaidan Monitoring Information Center, Chair
