Ukraine

UKRAINE, once commonly called “the Ukraine,” has experienced a variety of challenges as it has undertaken self-rule upon the collapse of the Soviet Union. Officially it enjoys a right-wing market economy rather than a state-controlled system. However, a case can be made that the defacto or real power remains in the hands of the left, those who believe in the need for a centralized government and a planned, state-run economy. That would be due to the fact that most of the wealth in Ukraine is controlled by former Soviet appointees and Communist Party faithful, who took advantage of economic reforms and emerged as entrepreneurs or “oligarchs,” acquiring considerable wealth and power during privatization as they became the owners of formerly state-owned industries and operations.

Ukraine has experienced a difficult history. Dominated throughout much of history by outside rulers, Ukraine enjoyed a long period of local autonomy during the 10th and 11th centuries as the center of a large Slavic state. In the 12th century, it was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and then the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. During the 17th century, Ukrainians launched another 100 years of autonomy that ended when Russian tzars coveted the area's vast farmlands. Then, briefly, Ukraine was independent beginning with the 1917 fall of the Russian Empire until 1920 when Ukraine joined the Soviet Union. It then endured a brutal period that claimed as many as eight million Ukrainian citizens during Stalin-instigated famines designed to bring the Ukrainians into submission, then World War II, in which German and Soviet occupiers caused another seven to eight million casualties.

Memories of the abuse by outsiders and the prosperity and independence during periods of self-rule have instilled Ukrainians with a strong cultural and religious identity. In 1990, there were more than three million members of the Communist Party and an additional 66,000 were candidates for party membership. Independence was embraced in 1991 at the end of Soviet rule. Institutionalized corruption filled the vacuum left by the sudden disappearance of centralized control. In the 1998 parliamentary elections, more voters supported the Communist Party than any other, more than 6.5 million voters. Some legislators who chose to remain true to socialism joined the Socialist Party, or the more radically inclined Union of Ukrainian Communists. When the Communist Party was reregistered by the Ministry of Justice in 1993, it claimed 120,000 members. By 2002, it claimed 140,000 [Page 463]members and claimed popularity among the segments of the population who remembered the “good old days” of cheap vodka, sausages, and “full employment.”

The national legislature is the 450-seat Verchovna Rada, which in 2004 was controlled by a right-leaning coalition government that enjoyed only a slight majority over the Communists and Socialists. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, elected by the right-of-center majority, supported three different drafts submitted to the Supreme Court for a new constitution designed to strengthen the role of the Rada, resulting in a diminished role for the president. Under one of the proposed constitution's provisions, the president would be elected by parliament. Among the reasons cited for the need for such reforms were accusations by left-wing legislators against right-wing reformer President Leonid Kuchma, who was accused of abuses, corruption, and complicity in the murder of a journalist.

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