Serving the People: Will Ukraine’s Political Culture Change? HURI Experts Weigh In

Just after his election in April, Zelensky called for snap parliamentary elections, which were previously set to take place in October 2019. Instead, voters brought his party, Servant of the People (Sluha Narodu), into parliament with unprecedented numbers: the party won 254 of 450 seats (only 424 of which are currently active; the 26 seats representing Crimea and the Donbas remain vacant), the first time a party has won an outright majority since Ukraine’s independence in 1991. What will Zelensky do with this consolidated power?

TCUP: Assessing the Ukrainian Parliamentary Elections

Emily Channell-Justice, Director of our new Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program (TCUP), provides an overview of commentary on the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The Ukrainian Parliamentary Elections will take place on July 21, 2019. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party, Sluha Narodu (Servant of the People), is likely to win the most seats, currently polling over 40% according to numerous groups (see IAP, KIIS, and Razumkov). What else should we expect following Sunday’s vote?

"Why Isn't Ukraine Authoritarian?" Asks Nataliya Kibita

Why are Ukrainians prone to revolt? Why, unlike Russia and other post-Soviet states, has Ukraine been able to avoid authoritarianism?

These are the questions at the root of Nataliya Kibita’s current research. A HURI Research Fellow in Ukrainian Studies during the Spring 2019 term, her project analyses the origins of regionalism, weak presidential power, and consensus-seeking politics in Ukraine. Her hypothesis is that these political tendencies in post-Soviet Ukraine are a legacy of the Soviet political system.

Програма Дослідження Сучасної України Імені Дж. Темертея

Вже більше року Український науковий інститут Гарвардського університету (УНІГУ) працює над створенням науково-дослідної програми, яка б зосереджувалася на вивченні подій та явищ, які відбуваються в сучасній Україні. І от, завдяки щедрій фінансовій підтримці канадсько-українського бізнесмена і мецената Джеймса Темертея, ця ідея стала реальністю. У квітні 2019 року було оголошено про призначення доктора Емілі Ченнел-Джастіс на посаду директора програми «Дослідження сучасної України» (або скорочено T-CUP).

HURI Fellow Talia Zajac Wins Prize for Kyivan Rus’ Article

Congratulations to Dr. Talia Zajac, one of our 2018 Shklar Fellows, for winning the Canadian Association for Ukrainian Studies Article Prize for 2017-2018. Her article, “The Social-Political Roles of the Princesses in Kyivan Rus,’ ca. 945-1240” is published in A Companion to Global Queenship (ed. Elena Woodacre, 2018).

The publishers kindly granted us permission to post the article to share with our community. Zajac also answered a few of our questions about the book and her time here at HURI as a Shklar Fellow.