An original sociological comic from Ukrainska Pravda and Yevhen Golovakha: “Talks, elections, Zaluzhnyi, ‘black swans', Trump and Ukrainians' reserve of resilience. Forecasts for 2025 in pictures”

Comics in Ukrainian are called “maliopysy” — drawn descriptions. Around the world this is an exceptionally well-developed genre of mass culture that already has its classics and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of published titles over the past almost century and a half. The history of Ukrainian comics is far shorter, but here too they have managed to form a distinct and rapidly developing genre, though mainly in literary form. Scholarly comics, however, are exceedingly few, since this is still an uncharted instrument for spreading scholarly knowledge.

So Ukrainska Pravda, with the help of Rustem Khalilov, Mykhailo Kryhel, ChatGPT and Pixton, took the risk of creating what may be the first sociological comic, together with the Director of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine, Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor Yevhen Golovakha, entitling it “Forecasts for 2025 in pictures”.

The scholar admitted that he had never had to be the hero of a comic before, though he has taken part in a number of documentary films.

And the first question to the sociologist, appropriately for the start of the year, was a logical one: will our resilience last through 2025? Drawing on his own institute's findings, its director answered confidently: it will, and through 2026 as well. He did note a certain decline: at the end of the first year of the full-scale invasion 12% of respondents were in distress (a state of severe stress), and two years later 27%, so one may expect the number of our fellow citizens in distress to grow this year.

As for society's attitude towards talks with Russia, at present a third of our compatriots are ready to accept talks without preconditions; this figure will probably grow over the year, but it will not amount to a majority. Likewise a majority are still against elections during the war, although signs of a revival of political life in the country are noticeable. New faces may enter politics from the two social groups society respects most — servicemen and volunteers.

The professor said that in 2025 one conservative and two radical scenarios may be expected. The first: despite the statements of the newly elected US president, if the situation cannot be fundamentally changed, exhausting defensive battles, the loss of part of our territory and a worsening of the population's psychological state await us; its probability may be 50%. The radical-dramatic scenario — if the position of the US leadership is to force an end to the war — may probably end in Russia's favour. The radical-euphoric one — if the Kremlin resists agreements — may end in a substantial increase in weapons supplies to Ukraine and in sanctions against Russia. The probability of these two scenarios is 25% each.

Ukrainians have a tendency towards externality, that is, they place their hopes on factors coming from outside; hence part of society's hope for “black swans” — events that may occur suddenly and change the situation radically. For the good of society's development, though, internality should be strengthened — reliance on one's own strength and actions.

Besides its substantive part, this original project by Ukrainska Pravda has interesting graphic elements, both serious and playful. On the whole one may say that the experiment is a success — through such a somewhat lighter form, serious content “lands” better with readers, especially young ones. The determination of the Institute of Sociology and its leadership not only to conduct deep and serious research but also to promote sociological knowledge tirelessly among the public, even in creative forms like this, is to be welcomed.

Read in full on the Ukrainska Pravda website and in the popular science section of the website of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine