Religious freedom in the face of the challenge of identity In Krytyka, No. 10 (72), 2003, pp. 5-7.

Viktor Yelenskii's article discusses threats to religious freedom in Ukraine since independence. The article consists of five parts.

The first part states that, despite authoritarian tendencies in politics, the right to freedom of religion in Ukraine is generally not seriously restricted. According to the author, the reasons for this are the absence of strong confessional overtones in Ukrainian nationalism, the presence of several influential competing religious centers in Ukraine, and the separation of the struggle for religious freedom from the broader civil rights movement.

In the second part, the author, referring to Cole Durham, identifies four prerequisites for religious freedom: pluralism, economic stability, the legitimacy of the existing political regime, and the willingness of the dominant religious community to be tolerant of religious minorities.

The third and fourth parts demonstrate why these prerequisites are absent in Ukraine. Particular attention is paid to attempts by aggressive religious communities to pressure the state to restrict the religious freedom of citizens.

The fifth part refutes the claim that foreign beliefs have a destructive influence on the national identity of Ukrainians. The author emphasizes the changeability and subjectivity of national identity. He considers the contradiction between religious freedom and national identity to be false.