Mental Health & Human Resilience International Journal (MHRIJ)

ISSN: 2578-5095

Mini Review

Resilience of Ukrainian Society in Resistance to the Russian Genocide

Authors: Boltivets S* and Stepyko M

DOI: 10.23880/mhrij-16000250

Abstract

The article highlights the foundations of the resilience of the largest communities in the modern world, which identify themselves as nations, using the example of the resilience of Ukrainian society in resisting the Russian genocide. It was noted that national identity is the main attributive, socio-cultural and civilizational characteristic of the nation, the civilizational brand of the country and the state, an important factor in their legitimation on the world stage, the key basis of either the separation or consolidation of society. The destruction of this identity is aimed at any war, which belongs to the events of the highest level of danger for all components of both personal and collective identity. Among the variants of the destructive impact of war on identity, the article highlights: comprehensively traumatic, which has totally negative consequences for identity; partially traumatic, affecting either personal or social components; and adaptive, when a person is able to cope with the consequences of such an influence. It has been found that a war that threatens the independence and sovereignty of a country can, under certain conditions, increase the resilience of a society and the hope of a population at risk, despite a reduced sense of well-being and a higher level of suffering. The consolidation potential and stability of the Ukrainian national identity was embodied in the overcoming of the value anemia of civil society during the war. Resilience was embodied in the heyday of volunteering in Ukraine, which coincided with the Revolution of Dignity and the beginning of the war in Donbas in 2014. In an extremely difficult period, it was this movement that united society, created an effective structure of public organizations, which took upon themselves the solution of the most urgent and painful problems of the state. The joint resilience of the people in the conditions of war was embodied in activities aimed at preventing social tension by supporting internally displaced persons and the most disadvantaged categories of the population; ensuring a dignified existence of citizens who, due to objective circumstances, are unable to take care of themselves on their own; overcoming the shortcomings of the state social policy, primarily due to prompt response and provision of effective targeted social assistance that meets the needs and requests of a specific person; spread of humanistic and altruistic ideas and attitudes in society. Full-scale Russian aggression also significantly changed the factors of self-identification of citizens: if earlier the vast majority of respondents indicated the priority of family inheritance, then the consequence of the war was the preference over the inheritance of civil union. An indicator of the vitality of the Ukrainian nation is the readiness of citizens with weapons in their hands to defend the independence and territorial integrity of the country. For the resilience of a person in the conditions of war, it is important to identify oneself with a community capable of survival and life, which includes all the people and peoples of the world who help to preserve the life of the Ukrainian people and Ukrainians in the conditions of the Russian war.

Keywords: Resilience of Communities; Russian Genocide; Destructive Impact of War; Societal Resilience; Full-Scale Russian Aggression; Self-Identification of Citizens; Civil Unity

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