We used to think that culture is something additional. There is the economy, there is security, there is politics, and then, somewhere in the end, there are books, movies, museums. But today, when Russia’s war against Ukraine has become not just a military invasion, but a deliberate attempt to destroy the very Ukrainian identity, culture has turned out to be the force that keeps society from disintegrating.

“Russia is waging against us not just a war for territory, but a civilizational war – an attempt to destroy the right of Ukrainians to be themselves,” the Christian Democratic Expertise analytical note says.
“That is why the library, church, theater, and museum are not just institutions. They are strongholds of national resistance.”

Culture, unlike weapons, works slowly. But its effect is long-lasting. In 2022, Ukrainians demonstrated the phenomenon of unity. They sang the national anthem in the subway dungeons, holding not only guns but also books. Plays and concerts in bomb shelters became symbols: we are still alive, we are still creating, we are the people.

But in 2024-2025, it became clear that social and moral fatigue was eroding this unity. Art cannot be sustained on heroism alone. It needs systemic support.

How to develop culture in times of war: not just “preserve” but “rethink”

The Christian democratic approach to cultural policy begins with a deep conviction: culture is a way of life for the people, not a set of “services” or “events.” It is a field of meanings where the main things are decided: who we are, what we believe in, what we are ready to die for, and why we should live on.

Here are the key ideas of this approach:

1. Personalism: everyone is a carrier of culture

At the center of everything is a person. Not as an object of a “cultural product,” but as a person capable of creating, searching for meaning, and transmitting experience.

“Art and education serve to reveal the human personality in its entirety,” the analysis says.

This means that cultural policy should support not only large theaters and academies, but also small rural libraries, parish choirs, and children’s fine arts studios.

2. Subsidiarity: initiative is born from below

Culture is not born in ministerial offices. It starts with the family, church, school, and community. The task of the state is to support, not dictate. This means giving local communities the resources and the right to create – and not to interfere unnecessarily.

3. Solidarity: culture for all

Access to cultural heritage should not be a privilege.
The village has the right to a performance just like the capital.
Children from IDP families should have access to art on an equal footing with everyone else.
Cultural policy should remove barriers, not create new ones.

4. 4. Rootedness and openness: memory and dialog

In the Christian democratic vision, culture is not isolation. It is openness to dialogue, but with a clear understanding of one’s identity.

“The Baptism of Rus was not just a religious event, but a civilizational choice. It laid down the spiritual code on which Ukrainian culture is based to this day.”

Today we have a chance to move from survival mode to self-assertion mode. We are no longer just defending ourselves, we are creating. And this transition should become the axis of a new cultural policy.

What exactly do you need to do?

1. Rethink the canon.
   To bring back into cultural circulation those who were silenced by the Soviet system: repressed artists, philosophers, and teachers who created an alternative tradition.
   Each region has its own name, its own legend – it’s time to sew these names together into a single national pantheon.
2. Support institutions, but not in a centralized way.
   Cultural policy cannot be centered in Kyiv. A network of local cultural centers should be established, which will be autonomous in management but will receive financial support.
3. To give voice to public and church initiatives.
   The Christian democratic principle of subsidiarity means that the state should not replace the community. Volunteer choirs, parish museums, and folklore groups are real carriers of living culture. They don’t need a “review committee” but a simple grant application and trust.
4. Bet on digital culture.
   Young people live on TikTok and YouTube. Where there is no Ukrainian culture, there will be someone else’s. We need to create platforms to support Ukrainian-language content, train bloggers, translators, and animators.
5. Clean, but not destroy.
   Decolonization is not about destruction, but about truth. It is not about erasing Pushkin, but about giving voice to Kulish, Dovzhenko, Krushelnytska, and Domontovych.
   This is not a war with the past, but the construction of a future in which we will no longer be “younger brothers.”

Instead of an epilogue: culture as a vocation, not a service

“Everything that holds us together as a community is based on culture. It is not only art. It is meaning,” the policy brief concludes.

We will win the war only when we win back not only territories but also meanings. And for this we need culture. Not a decorative one. Not festive. But deep, true, communal. The one that forms a person – free and responsible.

And it is precisely this culture – the culture of unity, dignity, and service – that the Christian democratic approach offers.

When Russian troops invaded Ukrainian soil in February 2022, it was not the frontline that broke first – it was society that stood strong. People scattered in different parts of the country united without orders or instructions. Someone opened a volunteer headquarters in their garage, someone baked bread for the terrorist defense, someone just silently took the hand of the person next to them and said: “Hold on”. In those first days and weeks of the war, old schemes collapsed, and a new, not yet articulated, but very much alive force was born – Ukrainian society as a subject, as a community, as a source of resilience.

But is this warmth of front-line solidarity enough for us to go through the marathon of war and the aftermath of recovery, reform, and transformation? The Christian democratic perspective gives us a profound, fundamental answer: no, not if this solidarity does not become a responsibility.

Social cohesion: not just unity, but trust

In 2022, we experienced a unique social moment – an explosion of trust. People trusted the army, volunteers, even strangers on the street. There was a sense of brotherhood in the air. This “reserve of unity” became a resource that carried us through the first and most difficult months. But trust is not magic, it is a mechanism. It needs to be maintained.

Already in 2024-2025, we see alarming signals. According to research by the Foundation for the Promotion of Democracy, the level of public anxiety has risen to 5.8 out of 10. People are tired, fragmented, and desperate. Disappointment in the state’s ability to solve everyday problems creates a sense of isolation. Instead of unification, there is atomization, and instead of communities, there is a bubble of information loneliness.

“A society that cannot protect its information space is doomed to lose the war for minds,” Serhiy Demyanov aptly noted.

And that is why social cohesion is not an emotion, but a strategy that needs to be nurtured at the institutional level.

People, not the state or the market, are at the center

The Christian democratic approach is radically different from the liberal or socialist approach. The center is not the state or the market, but the human being as a person created for life together. Not a statistical unit, not a “service user,” but a person with dignity, needs, and the ability to be responsible for others.

In this philosophy:

• Dignity → the basis of all social policy.
• Freedom → not anarchy, but the possibility of responsible choice.
• Responsibility → not only individual, but also mutual, to the community and society.

That is why Christian democracy does not see the social sphere as just “helping the needy,” but as an ethical order in which the strong protect the weak, not losing their own power but multiplying the common good.

The main social challenges of wartime

On paper, Ukraine is a country with thousands of social programs. In reality, there are tens of millions of people who feel abandoned. What are the main social challenges we face now?

1. Demographic crisis

• Population decline.
• Mass emigration of women and children.
• The aging of the nation, the destruction of the demographic balance.

2. Inequality and fatigue

• A sense of injustice: some at the front, others in restaurants.
• Growing distrust between different social groups.
• Polarization between urban and rural areas, “center” and “periphery”.

3. Crisis of institutions

• Disbelief in the state’s ability to provide social services.
• Bureaucratic obstacles in helping IDPs, veterans, and families of the victims.

4. Information fragmentation

• Media and telegram channels create closed spaces where everyone sees their own version of reality.

All of these are not just problems. These are signs of a shattered social fabric that needs to be restored, not patched, from the inside, based on basic moral principles.

Society is a community, not an exchange market

The modern liberal world sees a person as a consumer and society as a set of contracts. Christian democratic thought has a different vision: communio – a community of persons bound not only by rights but also by mutual responsibilities.

“Community, family, school, and church are not atavisms. These are the supporting structures of social life,” the policy brief says.

If the state tries to replace all these structures with itself, it does not heal, but cripples. If it creates a space where they can act freely, then healing is possible.

Social policy as ethics, not technocracy

We are used to evaluating social reforms in numbers: how many people are covered? What percentage of GDP has been spent? But the true indicator of a successful social policy is the sense of dignity of the person who receives it.

The Christian democratic approach offers a different way of thinking:

• The policy should be transparent so that the community can participate in its formation.
• It should be development-oriented, not dependency-oriented.
• It should not treat symptoms, but restore dignity and rebuild the social fabric.

Specific areas of action: from concept to practice

1. Developing a network of local social centers subordinated to communities rather than Kyiv.
2. Rehabilitation and support programs for veterans that combine medical, psychological, and spiritual care.
3. Supporting the families of the victims not only financially but also through community structures (churches, schools, volunteer networks).
4. Integration of IDPs is not a problem, but a chance – through employment, joint projects, and dialog.
5. Funding for horizontal initiatives – volunteer, community, parish initiatives that replace the functions of weak institutions.
6. Long-term programs for building social capital: cooperation schools, local media, interregional exchanges, support for youth communities.

To summarize: society is a front

We often hear: “Everything is clear at the front, but there is chaos in the rear.” But this is not true. The rear is the front. And it is no less important.

Christian democracy reminds us that victory is possible only when the strong protect the weak, when communities act freely, when politics serves the individual, and not vice versa.

Society is not a battlefield. It is the body of the nation. And if it loses communication between organs, between cells, no weapon can save it.

But if we return to dignity, to solidarity, to mutual responsibility, then we will not just survive.

We will win. As a society. As a nation. As a community.