Interethnic Relations and Ethnic Tolerance in Ukraine.

the eastern region4.714.64

the southern region4.714.68

the Crimea4.634.13*

Ukraine4.634.44**

*<0.05;**<0.01

First of all, it should be noted that a certain drop occurred in the average level of general national/ethnic intolerance of the population of Ukraine as a whole. On the one hand, the level remains shifted to the negative side of the tolerance scale (whereby, as has been mentioned, the mark of four points divides the positive and negative sides of the scale). On the other hand, however, there is a statistically significant movement toward a greater general national/ethnic tolerance which testifies to a positive if slow trend in the evolution of the mass consciousness.

Important changes in the level of general national/ethnic tolerance took place in the minds of people in Central Ukraine. The higher level of general national tolerance in this region shows that this formerly politically indifferent area with prevailing traditionalistarchaic orientations (where local interests supersede all other) is beginning to become rather actively involved in the political life of the country and, in some cases, to substantially influence the course of political developments. For example, the changes in the mass consciousness of the region’s population found their lection in the outcomes of the 1994 presidential elections. In the past. Central Ukraine had been fairly homogeneous in its political orientations (an assertion confirmed both by various data of public opinion polls and erendum results), thus enabling the integration of a number of oblasts into a single region. However, the outcomes of the 1994 presidential elections allow one to conclude that the population became differentiated in this region, where the choice between Leonid Kravchuk (the expresident) and Leonid Kuchma (the incumbent president) divided the population, as the voting confirmed, into Left Bank and Right Bank central subregions (with certain western Ukrainian and eastern Ukrainian orientations).

A rise of the national intolerance index in Kiev is not statistically significant due to the small number of those polled (90 people) and the variability in individual assessments.

As far as the dynamics of tolerance of Ukraine’s population towards various nationalities are concerned (Table 6), one can see that changes in opposite directions took place. Set against a background of a rather stable level of intolerance towards representatives of developed Western countries (Americans and Germans — here the changes are statistically insignificant), the general trends seems to be that intolerance towards ethnic groups living in Ukraine (Crimean Tatars, gypsies, Jews) decreased, while it rose with respect to Eastern European neighbours (Poles and Hungarians).

Table 6

Dynamics of tolerance of Ukraine ‘s population towards various nationalities

NationalitiesIndex of national intolerance (on a scale 1–7)

April 1992

N = 1752May 1994

N= 1807Change in index

Ukrainians1.551.83+0.28**

Russians2.452.25–0.20**

Belarussians2.852.70–0.15*

Jews4.183.82–0.36**

Americans4.314.42+0.11

Poles3.774.45+0.68**