Interethnic Relations and Ethnic Tolerance in Ukraine.

Ukrainians1.472.643.39

Ethnic Russians1.661.823.75

Ukrainians in various regions

The western region (Galicia)1.082.711.81

The central region1.132.533.53

The eastern region1.522.233.74

The southern region1.983.173.85

The Crimea2.293.244.29

While the group of respondents representing the Crimea’s Ukrainians was very small and can theore not be considered to represent the Ukrainian population of the region with sufficient statistical reliability, we still provide the corresponding data since they lect a general trend: ethnic Russians are rated on the scale of social distance as a group which is closer to Ukrainians than Ukrainian expatriates. Only Ukrainians in the western region are an exception to this — they rate Ukrainian expatriates closer to themselves than ethnic Russians. Thus, one can see that the sociopsychological attitudes of Ukrainians in the sphere of interethnic relations are rather different in various regions of Ukraine and this should be taken into account not only in further research but also in political decisionmaking.

6. Ethnic/National Intolerance Dynamics

Results of the second round of research undertaken in May 1994 make it possible to determine and describe certain trends in the development of the ethnic/national tolerance of Ukraine’s population. In this connection the indicators of general and specific tolerance of Ukrainians and ethnic Russians towards each other are important.

The level of general national/ethnic tolerance can be considered, within the context of prospects for the development of society, as an indicator of the degree of readiness of the population’s mass consciousness to open up and to cooperate with the world community on the basis of generally recognized democratic principles.At the same time, indicators of attitudes of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians towards each other are indicators of internal sociopolitical processes, the development of which can consolidate or jeopardize civil peace and accord in Ukraine. Moreover, attitudes towards ethnic Russians largely lect the population’s attitudes towards relations with Russia. Within the general political context, one cannot disregard the fact that peace in Eastern Europe will be largely determined by the course of development of relationships between Ukraine and Russia. An aggravation of the problems of the Crimea and the Black Sea Fleet, which have become major objects of confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, evokes serious concern not only among the responsible politicians of the two sides but also from the world community as a whole. The population’s support of various political actions, of both a compromising and confrontational nature, is at present an essential factor in political decisionmaking. In this connection, monitoring social moods and feelings, particularly those lected in mutual ethnic tolerance, enables one to predict to a certain extent the population’s reactions to changes in Ukrainian policy visavis Russia.

Table 5 shows the dynamics of levels of general national/ethnic tolerance with respect to changes which occurred in the mass consciousness of the population in various regions of Ukraine in the past two years of the new state’s making.

Table 5

Regional peculiarities of the general dynamics of national/ethnic intolerance

RegionsIndex of overall national intolerance (on a scale from 1–7)

19921994

Kiev4.014.49

the western region4.314.33

the central region4.874.25**