This essay traces the development of Ukrainian liberalism from the 19th century to modern times, beginning with intellectuals such as Mykhailo Drahomanov, Ivan Franko, Bohdan Kistyakivsky, and Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky who opposed imperialism, rejected Marxism, and promulgated ideas of freedom and democracy grounded in the western system of beliefs. It describes how and why liberalism as a social arrangement has driven recent democratization and market-oriented reforms in Ukraine.

Leonid A. Krasnozhon is associate professor of economics, Loyola University New Orleans.
Yuliya Yehorova is associate professor of economics at Kharkiv National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Kharkiv, Ukraine. Yuliya is displaced and residing in the Slovak Republic.
Defense and Foreign PolicyEurope