A Book Written with Sincere Friendliness, but also with Cold Mind

(Marko Bojcun. Towards a Political Economy of Ukraine: Selected Essays, 1990–1995. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2020, 296 р.)

Abstract

The book is designed as a collection of the author’s articles written in various times on the hot spot of the events that happened in independent Ukraine. The author highlights all the main phases of the modern Ukrainian state since 1991 to the events on Independence square (Maidan) (2013—2014) (including the evolution of the political system from parliamentary to presidential, and after that to parliamentary-presidential republic), as well as the impact of political reforms on the transformation of Ukraine from a country with the powerful science & technology sector specializing on machine-building to a new “breadbasket of Europe”. The final text of the book is a brief but deep analysis of the origins of the Ukrainian crisis, which gives convincing evidence that interactions of internal and external forces had devastating effects for the country. The book shows that both political camps competing for power in Ukraine in 2000s evidently fought for a better position for the country in the global capitalist system, both struggled to integrate Ukraine into the global market as a producer of goods with higher value added, both were trying to attract direct investment in technological modernization. And both failed in this. The author attempts to find out the role played by EU and U.S. in 90s in halting the entry of technologically advanced industries of Ukraine on global markets as potential competitors; the impact of the Soviet legacy in setting the vector of Ukraine’s development; why political elites failed to realize in due time that the interests of newly born local oligarchical business clans were not necessarily aligned with the country development; how significant was the role of the Russian and Western imperialism in the explosion of the Ukrainian crisis and the war.