Day of Dignity and Freedom at the Educational and Research Institute of Philology and Journalism

22.11.2024

On 21 November, the Educational and Research Institute of Philology and Journalism hosted the event ‘Day of Dignity and Freedom: with Ukraine in our hearts’.

On this day in 2004 and 2013, concerned citizens came to the capital’s Independence Square. In November 2004, to defend their right to fair elections. Nine years later, to defend their dignity and the European future of Ukraine.

Teachers and students of the Educational and Research Institute of Philology and Journalism observed a minute of silence for those who died for the freedom and future of Ukraine.

The moderators of the event, Deputy Director for Social and Humanitarian Work of the Institute of Philology and Journalism Iryna Boitsun and lecturer of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology Yevhen Kharkivskyi, reminded the audience of the events that took place in autumn 2013 – spring 2014 in Ukraine.

On 21 November 2013, one and a half thousand people took to Independence Square to protest against the refusal of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych to sign a document that the country had been working towards for years: an agreement on Ukraine’s associate membership in the European Union.

After the brutal beating of young people on 30 November 2013 by special security forces in Kyiv’s main square, Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the resistance movement turned into a long campaign of civil disobedience against the government, corruption and human rights violations.

The Revolution of Dignity peaked on 18-20 February 2014, when bloody clashes broke out in the centre of Kyiv, the Trade Union Building was set on fire and many EuroMaidan activists were shot dead. Officially, 107 victims of the Revolution of Dignity have been identified.

The Euromaidan, united by a national goal, also had its own distinctive regional colouring. In Luhansk and Donetsk, concerned activists organised rallies, assemblies and meetings in support of Ukraine’s European integration policy, the right to independence and territorial integrity. Participants of pro-Ukrainian rallies were persecuted, threatened, abducted, tortured and killed. The events of autumn 2013 – summer 2014 are described in the book ‘In the Ring of Fire. The Defence of Luhansk Airport’ by Serhiy and Anastasiia Hlotov, active participants in Euromaidan. There is no complete information about the volunteers and civilians of the Luhansk region who were killed by Russian militants in March-August 2014.

The Revolution of Dignity became a baptism of fire for Ukrainian society, which for the first time since the restoration of independence realised the price of freedom when it saw the blood shed by Maidan participants for our freedom and dignity, for the right of Ukrainians to freely create the future.

The fires of the Maidans hardened many of those who volunteered to go from the Maidan to the Ukrainian East in the spring of 2014 to defend it from Russian aggression, and in February 2022, during the large-scale invasion, stood up to defend Ukraine from the Russian invasion.

WE WILL NOT BE DEFEATED!

Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!

According to the Educational and Research
Institute of Philology and Journalism