In Ukrainian, the word for a vote
is the same as that for a voice: holos.
So to cast your vote for someone
is to literally give them your voice.
And it makes sense.
By choosing our political representatives,
we lend them our voice.
If they misuse it,
it can render us voiceless.
But if they use it well,
it can amplify our voice,
making sure that it is heard.
Amplifying the voices of the silenced
is at the heart of democracy.
Now you might wonder
why on Earth this Ukrainian thinks
that she can talk about democracy.
As a historian, surely I should know
that my country has been locked
in an empire of one sort
or another until recently,
and has been struggling with corruption
and other challenges
since it regained independence.
And you'll be right to wonder that.
But I would like to suggest
that those are the reasons
that qualify me to talk about democracy.
In spite of numerous obstacles
throughout their history,
Ukrainians continued
to walk the road to democracy.
In spite of numerous attempts
by our rulers,
from the Russian tsars
to communist dictators, to silence us,
we found ways of making our voices heard.
And I'd like to focus on three lessons
that we could learn from Ukrainians
that can help us strengthen our voices
wherever we are in the world:
perseverance,
unity and vision.
Let me start with perseverance.
States that haven’t enjoyed
a long history of self-rule
don't tend to be taken seriously
in discussions that are
dominated by nations
with a long democratic tradition.
What could a young state
possibly contribute
to a conversation about democracy?
It's only just learning
how to be democratic.
When I experienced
the sort of dismissal of a Ukrainian voice
in some international discussions,
it reminded me of a situation
when a young woman's experience
is dismissed by a group of older men.
She can't possibly have
anything of value to contribute
to a serious conversation, can she?
Naturally, I like to challenge that view.
Ukraine's history of statelessness
demonstrates that living
under oppressive regimes,
Ukrainians learned the value of freedom.
For us, it's not something
to be taken for granted.
It’s something to be fought for
and, once gained, protected.
Another legacy of statelessness
is the fact that we don't have
a tradition of revering rulers.
In fact, we're pretty suspicious
of political leaders.
Those who have tried to hold on to power
and flirted with authoritarianism
got a taste of democracy in action.
"Democratia," after all,
means "people power."
Ukrainians take to the streets
at least once a decade
to protect their freedom.
Many of you might remember
the last major protests
that took place in Ukraine in 2013-2014.
They came to be known
as the Revolution of Dignity.
Peaceful protesters came out
to the squares all over Ukraine
to demonstrate against corruption
and abuse of power
by the president of the time.
One of the iconic figures
for those protesters was Taras Shevchenko,
an 19th-century Ukrainian poet
who is known as the founder
of the Ukrainian nation.
The poems that he wrote
in the subjugated, stateless Ukraine
of the 19th century
fueled protesters in 21st-century Ukraine
as they fought to consolidate democracy.
One of the first protesters killed
by the riot police was Serhiy Nigoyan.
The last footage of Serhiy
from the protests
is of him reciting Shevchenko's poem,
and the most famous line is:
“Boritesia - poborete.”
“Keep fighting, and you will prevail.”
In other words, persevere.
The Revolution of Dignity
ended in the victory of the people.
The corrupt president fled the country,
and the nation was able
to choose a new leadership
in a free and fair election.
The country was en route to consolidating
its democratic institutions.
But threatened by people power
on its doorstep,
the Kremlin started a war
against Ukraine in 2014.
A flourishing democracy next door
is a scary thing for an autocrat.
So Ukrainians continue to persevere
to protect their freedom,
but now we also have to do so
on the battlefield.
Let me now turn to unity.
The protester, Serhiy Nigoyan,
was Armenian by ethnicity.
His participation
in the Ukrainian nationhood
was a political choice.
A multiethnic, multicultural,
multilingual nation,
Ukraine has been deliberately
presented by the Kremlin
and misunderstood
by much of the world as divided.
In reality, diversity makes
this political nation only more united
in times of crisis.
For instance, Crimean Tatars
know very well
what it means to suffer
from colonization and repression.
They were deported from Crimea,
their homeland, in 1944 by Stalin,
and have been persecuted
by the Russian occupying
authorities since 2014.
That is why you will find them
fighting in the Ukrainian Armed Forces
for the liberation
of all parts of Ukraine,
alongside Ukrainians of Polish, Jewish,
Romanian or any other backgrounds.
Protecting the rights of one group
supports the protection of all.
Ukrainians have an official Day of Unity.
It is celebrated on January 22.
The date is chosen
because on January 22, 1919,
Ukrainian lands
that had previously been ruled
by the Habsburgs and the Romanovs
united into one state
through the Treaty of Unity.
That state didn't last long,
but the experience of unity
and sovereignty left a powerful legacy.
That is why on January 22, 2022,
just a month before the start
of the full-scale invasion,
when the Russian troops were all around
the Ukrainian borders, ready to attack,
citizens of Ukraine
in different parts of the country
formed a human chain
in celebration of the past
and in defense of the future.
And this brings me to vision.
The vision of Ukraine
as a democratic, united country,
free of imperial oppression
has its roots in a time when independence
and democracy could only be a dream.
But it is people
that make dreams come true.
I know it.
I watched one such dream become a reality.
It was on December 1, 1991.
I was seven at the time.
It was the first taste of democracy
for me, but also for my country.
I was born when Ukraine
was still part of the USSR.
I caught the tail end
of the crumbling Soviet empire.
They held regular
but utterly pointless elections.
Elections with only one winning candidate.
I witnessed the implementation
of a social contract that said,
"we'll pretend to give you a vote
and you'll pretend to elect us."
On December 1, 1991
everything was different.
No more pretending.
This was for real.
The nation was being asked
to determine its future in a referendum.
There was only one question to answer:
"Do you support the act of Declaration
of Independence of Ukraine?"
The turnout was 84 percent.
Almost 30 million people.
Over 90 percent of those
who voted said yes.
The USSR was dissolved a week later.
Now, if that is not people power,
I don't know what is.
The experience
of witnessing this referendum
had a profound effect on me.
I remember my entire family
dressing in our finest
traditional embroidered shirts,
vyshyvanki,
to go to the polling station.
It felt like a holiday.
And perhaps it was.
Gaining freedom is definitely
something worth celebrating.
Generations of Ukrainians before 1991
had a vision of the future
for their country,
but their voices were silenced.
My parents' generation
managed to get their voices heard
and willed that vision into being.
It is up to my generation
and those who come after
to protect that vision
of a democratic Ukraine.
So the three lessons
from Ukraine are simple,
and we can turn to them wherever
we are facing the fight for democracy.
Have a vision of the future
that is worth fighting for.
Be united in that fight.
And all you’ll need to succeed
will be perseverance.
And if there's one thing Ukrainians
do know about democracy
is that it's really hard work,
but it pays off.
Taras Shevchenko, the 19th-century poet
I cited at the start of my talk,
was born into serfdom.
He had no power, no political voice.
Eventually he was bought out of serfdom,
but his freedom continued to be limited.
As soon as his fiery poetry
criticizing Russian imperial oppression
was discovered,
he was imprisoned,
sent to serve in the imperial army
for ten years as a private
and banned from writing.
So he was robbed of his voice
for a second time.
And yet his poetic voice was so powerful
that the verses he wrote
not only survived
the repression of his times
but also fueled and sustained
the future generations
who fought for and achieved independence.
In September 2022, when the soldiers
of the Ukrainian Armed Forces
were liberating the city of Balakliya
in the Kharkiv region,
they tore down a billboard poster
depicting the Russian flag
and a slogan which said,
"We are one nation with Russia."
It had been put there
by the occupying Russian authorities.
Underneath that poster was another,
predating the occupation.
It was a portrait of Taras Shevchenko
and the famous lines from his poem:
“Boritesia - poborete.”
Keep fighting, and you will prevail.
Thank you.
(Applause)