The Orange Revolution

Harlin Lee & Eun yeol Ma 

The Orange Revolution started after the winner of the 2004 Ukraine president election. Viktor Yanukovych, was accused of manipulating the election by his close relationship with the Ukraine president - Leonid Kuchma – and Russia. On the eve of the second-round voting, the supporters of Viktor Yushchenko, Yanukovych’s rival, claimed that Yushchenko is the actual winner, and demanded the reason why the official count remarkably differed from the reliable exit poll results which gave Yushchenko a huge lead. Citizens rose up against the fraud. The Orange Revolution in Ukraine has just started now. 1. One remarkable characteristic of the Orange Revolution is that no violence was involved. The most often used method of showing protest was sit-ins, people occupying a certain place. The Yushchenko campaign policy asked the citizens to protest against the vote fraud on the dawn of the election day, November 21, 2004. From November 22, 2004, massive protests occurred in cities across Ukraine. 500,000 people gathered in Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), coloring the whole square into orange, the color of Yushchenko. Those people assembled again in front of the headquarters of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), in November 23, 2004, and peacefully marched. The word “Orange Revolution” came out from the orange-colored masses of citizens gathered during the revolution. Millions of citizens wore or carried orange objects to show their support for Yushchenko. This effectively showed people’s opposition against Yanukovych’s vote fraud and support for Yushchenko. Meanwhile, Yushchenko took a symbolic presidential oath, which does not have any legal power but states that he is the true president of Ukraine. Furthermore, Ukrainians had general strikes which completely paralyzed the economy of the nation. They also showed their frustrations by civil disobedience, which is purposely disobeying to certain laws. But there was no violent involved. This was a way to show that the citizens did not support what the country is doing. 2. The Orange Revolution in Ukraine is different from the American and French Revolutions. The revolution in Ukraine was not a violent revolution that had injured or killed people. It was a protest in which the supporters of a candidate were protesting against the government. In American Revolution, there was a war between America and the U.K. This would have killed many people. The violent action was what solved the problem in the revolution. In the French Revolution, there was not a war. But the citizens of France rose up and had a very violent revolution which killed the King, Queen, and many nobles. And even when there was a protest, there was no violent action to solve the problem. Another difference is that this revolution was not about going against the previous leader. In all the revolutions that we had studied before, it was about going against the previous leader. However, in this revolution, it is not about the leader. It happened because of a vote fraud that happened to choose the next president of the country. On the other hand there are some similarities as well. For example, this was a revolution by the people. The normal citizens had rose up to get the things right. This was the case in French Revolution and People Power in the Philippines. Lastly, there is one special similarity with the Filipino People Power. This is that the next leader to be was attacked. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, the Filipino senator, was shot and killed. Yuschenko was also attacked, but did not die. He was mysteriously poisoned and the test came out that it was a dioxin poisoning. Many people think that it is done by the Russians, who supported Yanukovych. 3. After a week of protest, on December 3, 2004, a recount of the vote was ordered by the Ukrainian Supreme Court. On December 26, the results came out. Yuschenko had beaten Yanukovych in the recount of the votes. Yuschenko became the next president of Ukraine. After Yuschenko became the president of Ukraine, Ukraine has gotten much better in some points. Their economy, for instance, has improved a bit. The GDP has grown about 105 billion dollars, and the GDP per capita has grown about $3000. However, their economy growth is decreasing every year. People in Ukraine do not feel any significant difference between before and after the revolution. They say they are still poor and the political corruptions are not getting any better. They say Yuschenko got the effect of the vote fraud; people simply did not want Yanukovych the vote fraud to be the next president. In other words, if any other candidate was opposite to Yanukovych, people would have supported him. Yuschenko did not become the president due to his own ability, but due to people’s hatred of the vote fraud. Some people question whether Yuschenko could have win the election or not if the manipulation did not happen. Also, the Orange Revolution made the politics in Ukraine unstable. That kind of small and big protests is occurring now and then. In addition, Ukraine is politically stuck between Russia and Europe. In contrast to Yanukovych who had close relationships with Russia, Yuschenko promised his people to be closer to Europe and join EU. He succeeded in being separated from Russia and previous Soviet Unions, but Ukraine’s join in EU is still not clear. Now Ukraine is alone between Europe and Russia. 4. This revolution is justified. It was a revolution against a vote fraud that was committed by the government and a candidate. I believe that the citizens of a country deserve the true leader that they have picked. If someone else suddenly becomes the leader, the people would be furious. The Orange Revolution was not a revolution that one person came up in search of one person. It was a revolution that the people wanted. And if the people of a country want something, it is already 50% justified. The next is what happened after. The country has gotten better under the ruling of Yuschenko. Yuschenko did not commit any political crimes. This proves that the Orange Revolution was done for the better of Ukraine. It was not something that made the country go bad. 5. The Orange Revolution does not fit the Crane Brinton’s Stages of Revolution at all. There were no symptoms, no crisis, but only rising fever and convalescence. During the first stage of the Orange revolution, which is supposed to be symptoms, there were no economic restraints, inept government or defection of intellectuals. Since Orange Revolution occurred suddenly, there were no foreshadows of the revolution, and nobody expected that to happen. And Ukrainians didn’t dislike their country before. It was only the vote manipulation that made the people angry, and only that was what people were against. The second stage, rising fever, was the main part of the revolution. People rose up against the government by sit-ins, civil disobediences and general strikes, and the current government couldn’t shoot them away. But there were no new government. Although some people may consider the Yuschenko camp as the new government because Yuschenko took the oath, but they did not take any actions that was related to managing the nation. They were just the base camp of the revolution and nothing more. The crisis, the third stage, may be the most far-fetched assumption. One of the main characteristics of the Orange Revolution is that no violence was involved. Yes, there were radicals and moderates as usual, but the radicals never took over the power. And the revolution was still powerful since many people supported it and it was still December when crisis came. It doesn’t even seem to be appropriate to call it a “crisis.” Nevertheless, the revolution ended and stepped into the fourth stage, the convalescence. The workers started to work again and the life in the country returned to normal. Although Yuschenko seems to be economically disappointing his citizens these days, at that moment Yuschenko was the strong leader who could unify the nation under his commands, because everyone stood up for him during the revolution. Overall, the Orange Revolution does not fit into Crane Brinton’s Stage of Revolution, since there were no symptoms and crisis in during the two- month revolution. Maybe it is because Crane wasn’t alive then to see the orange waves in the independent square. Bibliography "Orange Revolution." Wikipedia. 16 Jan 2008 . Quinn-Judge, Paul.“The Orange Revoution." Time Magazine 28 Nov 2004 16 Jan 2008 .