MARCH 2 “THIS WEEK IN THE MUSIC OF NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE”

In 2014, a nonviolent Ukrainian resistance movement ousted authoritarian leader Victor Yanukovych.

Soon after, and this week in 2014, nonviolent resistance scholars Peter Ackerman, Maciej Bartkowski, and Jack Duvall published an in-depth article on how the movement used nonviolence and music to oust the leader and call for democratic reforms.

The authors explained that for nearly 90 days Ukrainians assembled in Kiev’s main square, the Maidan.  What followed included democracy in action, with thousands of campers, hundreds of lectures about the protest, and music.

The article explains that “[m]usic was heard often on the Maidan. One of the songs “Vitya Ciao” (or Goodbye Victor, a clear reference to Victor Yanukovych) was posted on YouTube at the beginning of December, went viral and gathered close to one million views.  In Kyiv hundreds of people would stop to sing the national anthem, which was also repeatedly heard on the Maidan.”

Read the article in full here.