The existential war for the right to exist has brought to the forefront of Ukrainian society the debate about identity, basic values and the need for appropriate policies for the survival of Ukrainians and the protection of Ukrainian statehood.
The renaissance of right-wing conservative parties in Europe in the context of the continent's biggest war since World War II is no accident. When uncertainty about the future reaches its maximum, Europe turns to conservatism. The existential threat encourages cohesion and the protection of basic values that can allow us to survive in the newest "dark times". And Ukraine is no exception, as we are also starting an adult conversation about survival in these circumstances.
In order to discuss what Ukrainians are fighting for, what we need to protect and enhance, and how to gain the capacity to defend the "Ukrainian world" from the perspective of Ukrainian conservatives, the Strategic Dialogue of Ukrainian Conservatives was organized in the Refectory Church at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra on June 29 following the National Prayer Breakfast. The event brought together religious and public-political figures from Ukraine and abroad. In particular, the event was attended by foreign guests from the US and Europe. Leaders of conservative think tanks from Washington participated online.
This was an experimental format of the event, intended to initiate the process of forming a common understanding of fundamental positions for Ukraine. The idea was to take believers beyond the confines of their own parishes and discuss the conditions under which they could not only save their own souls but also help save Ukraine, so that Ukrainian conservatives could define for themselves what is important to them and what they must do to protect it.
Each of us has an inherent desire to preserve what we value: whether it is our circle of family and friends, values and principles, or material wealth. However, preserving what is essential and important to us requires effort from everyone. We have to agree on what we value together, how we should protect it, what approaches, assessments and actions we should demand of ourselves in order to be able to do so.
To do this, we need to develop new forms of interaction between believers in order to preserve traditional values, responding to the current challenges.
In fact, the first Strategic Dialogue of Ukrainian Conservatives was dedicated to starting a dialogue about the issues mentioned above. In the future, the organizers plan to hold regional dialogues in each region. The goal is to conceptualize a common vision of Ukrainian conservatives at the next strategic dialogue, which would launch organized interaction to protect everything that is important to all of us.
However, the conservatives can achieve their goals only together with the whole society, taking responsibility for its structuring and cohesion – and this is their main mission.
And where the conservatives succeeded, the society not only preserved its identity and historical tradition, but also prospered, accumulating capital and passing it on to their families as an inheritance.
Where for the conservatives the preservation of the old order turned into a form of struggle against the reformers, where they clung too much to old forms and backward dogmas, blindly following archaic leaders, both they and the country lost.
Thus, future dialogues should not only identify and clearly articulate a common vision of basic conservative values, positions and principles, involving a wide range of Ukrainian society, but also spark political, social, cultural and religious discussions about personal responsibility to God and one's community for the future of Ukraine.
If you like, we have to offer a new reformation of the orthodox views that all things are God's will. This is not true, because God has no other hands but ours!
We have to protect, restore and increase ours!
We hope that the next Strategic Dialogues of Ukrainian conservatives will conceptualize a common vision of positions on the following issues:
- Ukrainian values, lifestyle and traditions;
- public ethics, culture of dialogue and interaction;
- the role of a citizen, community, civil society and the state;
- faith, religion, and their place in Ukrainian state-building and spiritual diplomacy;
- family as a socially fundamental basis;
- education, culture, science;
- demography, birth rate increase, return of refugees, repatriation and migration;
- economy, social and veteran policy;
- protection of civil rights and freedoms (including religion), as well as the presumption of innocence of taxpayers and inviolability of private property;
- the right to weapons and self-defense with them as a full norm of the Constitution of Ukraine;
- the infrastructure of democracy, the election of local sheriffs, heads of local courts, prosecutor's offices and treasuries as the fundamental basis of the Republic of Ukraine;
- national security and defense;
- international partnerships and alliances;
- Ukraine's role in the world and in the final resolution of the Russian issue;
- ecology and demining.
The formation of a common vision on the above-mentioned topics will become a navigation for Ukrainian conservatives and will give impetus to the development of a full-fledged value-based ideological conservative platform.
The work in this direction will provide an opportunity to form a methodological basis for designing neo-conservatism as a socio-political and philosophical attitude in the context of modern Ukraine.
Only then can we talk about the emergence of a conservative movement and raise the issue of the political implementation of its program principles.
But before that moment, hundreds and thousands of strategic dialogues about our future still need to take place on a local scale. However, every journey begins with the first step...
So, good luck!
Sergiy Chaplygin
Ruslan Rokhov