Identists vs. Antiidentists: A Prologue to the Ukrainian Crisis

The article analyzes the features of modern ideological and political conflicts in Europe and the world, in particular, the process of crystallization of the identist ideology (identism), which opposes the values of “liberal democracy” (antiidentism) on the eve of the Ukrainian crisis. It is emphasized that the struggle for identity has become a form of defending attractive meanings and defending sovereign models of development as opposed to ultraliberalism. The confrontation between traditionalists and antitraditionalists has become an integral element of the dynamics of divided societies. That context could help to understand the deepening of the ideological withstanding during Ukrainian crisis. The article examines party-political differences and ideological conflicts in the public sphere, describes the origins of the emergence of modern antiidentism, the growth of identist sentiments and the reaction to this growth from the supporters of antiidentism. The factors of weakening of identism were the struggle with political rivals, in the United States against Trump and Trumpism, in the European Union against parties and move-ments of the identism orientation (“populists”), the criminalization of identist views within the framework of the imposition of gender policy, during the pandemic the marginalization of identist principles in the context of sanitary policy. It is concluded that within the framework of the emerging polycentric world the confrontation of two ideological systems – identism and antiidentism is gradually taking shape. The most important feature of this confrontation is the significant presence of supporters of various opposing parties in almost all countries and regions of the world. All Western identists declared themselves as the unconditional supporters of democratic values in the traditional sense of classical liberalism – separation of powers, free elections, and civil liberties. They see themselves as fighters for their revival in modern Europe and in the United States, as opposed to the monopoly of antiidentism.