Alternative courses of Ukraine in Chernivtsi — is not a war and not a foreign intervention. This is a civil society, powerful and independent from political parties, this is the parties of a new type which are funded by ordinary people, not by the oligarchs. This is the conclusion of the participants of VIII Winter Studrespublika, that was held on 26-29th February 2016 in the Carpathians, Bukovyna.
This year WiSR was special, because, firstly, there was a large number of participants. Secondly, almost all regions of Ukraine were represented, including Donbass and Crimea. Thirdly, the participants represented various age groups — from students to those who were born in the 50’s. Moreover, we had a constellation of great experts, and the theme itself was obliged to responsible, decisive and hard work. You can see further, how the participants of the WiSR managed to be successful in analyzing problems and offering Ukraine many positive alternatives.
During the official opening of the VIII Winter Studrespublika republican leader Pavlo Viknуanskyy said that the responsibility for the future of Ukraine is on our shoulders, because the government does not know and does not see where to guide the country, so we must write alternate courses for development. Republicans also came to congratulate a friend of Studrespublika, a social activist Oleksiy Burbak, who wished not only accumulation of many ideas, but their implementation as well.
The work started with Skype lection on the freedom of choosing the elective socioeconomic development model from Dr. Yakov Rabkin, a history professor of Montreal University (Canada). Also at the event there were social psychologist Oleksandr Hubenko, philosopher Serhiy Datsyuk, political scientist Andriy Kruglashov, political philosopher Andrii Okara, economist Volodymyr Panchenko, psychologist Fr. Antonii Rudyi, philosopher Vladimir Fadeev who were testing the participants and reading lectures.
The game itself was held in extraordinary intellectual tension, which fascinated the participants so much, that they have forgotten everything except the need to focus on thinking about the future of Ukraine. The groups changed, the ideas were created and dismissed because of rational critics, ideologies were discussed in a new way. Eventually two major components were left, two courses of the new Ukraine, which are vibrant civil society, that upholds the principles of construction of Ukraine as a much decentralized country, and left political parties of a Western-style, that consist of left and democratic powers which are in favor of a complete modernization of Ukraine. These groups cooperate with each other. The party has to communicate and listen to people, to include in its position the demands from civil society and to agree to implement them, when it comes to power.
VIII Winter Studrespublika gave us not only a deep analysis of the real problems, but also developed a view of modernization changes which have to be immediately implemented in Ukraine in order to prolong its existence at all. This is not pathos, this is such a cruel choice which our state faced, and thus we did too.
Victory in WiSR-VIII took Oleksandr Hlazov from Poltava who is the Poltava City Council deputy; Yuri Davydenko who studies in Mariupol got the second place, the third was Christina Litosh from Horlovka, who studies in Slavyansk. The winners received prizes from the partner of Studrespublika — Ukrainian company Impression Electronics, and an intelligent, smart book. During the official closing ceremony all the participants were awarded with diplomas, books and even the books written by our outstanding economist Bohdan Hawrylyshyn.
After WiSR the participants were enjoying a wonderful tour of Chernivtsi. They visited the beautiful Yuriy Fedkovych National University in Chernivtsi where they talked with the prorector Tamara Marusyk.
After that the Mayor of Chernivtsi Oleksiy Kaspruk had a meeting with members of WiSR in the meeting room of the City Council. He expressed his satisfaction from the fact that that event took place in Bukovyna for the second time and that he managed to communicate with members of WiSR again. Also he asked about the results of TheWinter and answered questions of the participants. In the end everyone had the opportunity to admire the modern art gallery Sweet-Art.
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Organizers: NGO Students’ Republic organizationally supported by The Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine. Partners: Graviton Company, Impression company, SendPulse, GURT Resource Centre.
