The Orange Revolution () was a series of protests that led to political upheaval in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005. It gained momentum primarily due to the initiative of the general population, sparked by the aftermath of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election runoff which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter intimidation, and electoral fraud. Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, was the focal point of the movement's campaign of civil resistance, with thousands of protesters demonstrating daily.Andrew Wilson, "Ukraine's 'Orange Revolution' of 2004: The Paradoxes of Negotiation", in Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 295–316. Nationwide, this was highlighted by a series of acts of civil disobedience, sit-ins, and general strikes organized by the opposition movement.
The protests were prompted by reports from several domestic and foreign election monitors as well as the widespread public perception that the results of the run-off vote of 21 November 2004 between leading candidates Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych were rigged by the authorities in favour of the latter.Paul Quinn-Judge, Yuri Zarakhovich, The Orange Revolution , Time, 28 November 2004 The nationwide protests succeeded when the results of the original runoff were annulled, and a re-vote was ordered by Ukraine's Supreme Court for 26 December 2004. Under intense scrutiny by domestic and international observers, the second run-off was declared to be "free and fair." The final results showed a clear victory for Yushchenko, who received about 52% of the vote, compared to Yanukovych's 44%. Yushchenko was declared the official winner, and with his inauguration on 23 January 2005 in Kyiv, the Orange Revolution ended. In the following years, the Orange Revolution had a negative connotation among pro-government circles in Belarus and Russia.Ukraine is Not Russia:Comparing Youth Political Activism by Taras Kuzio, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006 «В оранжевых и радужных трусах» In orange and red shorts , Vzglyad (25 January 2013)
In the 2010 presidential election, Yanukovych became Yushchenko's successor as President of Ukraine after the Central Election Commission and international observers declared that the presidential election was conducted fairly.
Background
Gongadze assassination or Kuchmagate crisis Georgiy Gongadze, a Ukrainian journalist and the founder of Ukrayinska Pravda (a newspaper well known for publicising the corruption or unethical conduct of Ukrainian politicians), was kidnapped and murdered in 2000. Persistent rumours suggested that Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma had ordered the killing. Gen. Oleksiy Pukach, a former police officer, was accused of the murder under the orders of a former minister who committed suicide in 2005. Pukach was arrested in 2010 and was sentenced to life in prison in 2013. The murder sparked a movement against Kuchma in 2000 that may be seen as the origin of the Orange Revolution in 2004. After two terms of presidency (1994–1999) and the Cassette Scandal of 2000 that significantly damaged his image, Kuchma decided not to run for a third term in the 2004 elections and instead supported Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in the presidential race against Viktor Yushchenko of the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc.
Causes of the Orange Revolution The state of Ukraine during the 2004 presidential election was considered to be in "ideal condition" for an outburst from the public. During this time, Ukrainians were impatient while waiting for the economic and political transformation. Ukraine's Orange Revolution: Causes and Consequences] by Taras Kuzio, University of Ottawa (28 April 2005) The results of the election were thought to be fraudulent.
The Revolution empowered many Ukrainians to take to the streets and participate in the protests, some lasting as long as seventeen days. The protests did not enjoy national participation but were mostly joined by western and central Ukrainians. Ukraine gained independence in 1991 and it was the quest for that independence that supported the Orange Revolution. Ukrainians for the most part did not want to be too closely associated with the past history of the Soviet Union. The Austro-Hungarian roots in the eastern European geo-cultural area of Ukraine (formerly known as Poland-Lithuania) helped shape the modern-day Ukrainian national identity.
Factors enabling the Orange Revolution
The Ukrainian regime prior to the Orange Revolution sought to create a path for democratization. Ukraine was considered a "competitive authoritarian regime" that is gradually transitioning into a hybrid regime, allowing for room to fully transition into a liberal democracy, with a market based economy. The Ukrainian electorate sought to elect a candidate to bring economic and political reforms. Yushchenko quickly established himself as the leading candidate in calling for these reforms.
Yushchenko was a charismatic candidate who did not appear to be corrupt and presented his ideas in a "non-Soviet" way. Young Ukrainian voters were important to the outcome of the 2004 presidential election. This new wave of younger people born in a post-Soviet Ukraine held a negative view of Kuchma and his ability to lead their country, an aftereffect of the cassette scandal.
The abundance of younger people who participated showed an increasing sense of nationalism that was developing in the country. The Orange Revolution had enough popular impact that it interested people of all ages.BBC News. "Ukraine Country Profile." 2012. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1102303.stm . 2 December 2012; Encyclopædia Britannica. Kuchma's Presidency.; The Economist. "Catching Kuchma". 2011. https://www.economist.com/europe/2011/03/31/catching-kuchma . 3 Dec 2012.; Konieczna, Joanna. "The Orange Revolution in Ukraine. An Attempt to Understand the Reasons." 2005. http://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/osw-studies/2005-07-13/orange-revolution-ukraine-attempt-to-understand-reasons . 3 Dec 2012; Kuzio, Taras. Eight Necessary Factors for the Orange Revolution.; Kuzio, Taras. Five Contributing Factors.
Visits of Vladimir Putin to Ukraine in 2004
In 2004, Russian president Vladimir Putin visited Ukraine numerous times. The Party of Regions received large donations from Moscow, estimated at between $50 million and $300 million. Putin tasked his chief of staff, Dmitry Medvedev, with leading political operations in Ukraine. Medvedev sent trusted advisors, including Gleb Pavlovsky and Sergei Markov, to Ukraine. In August 2004, Kremlin political activists opened a room called “Russia House” in a hotel in central Kyiv to run the Kremlin's campaign for Yanukovych.
Prelude to the Orange Revolution Political alliances
In late 2002, Viktor Yushchenko (Our Ukraine), Oleksandr Moroz (Socialist Party of Ukraine), Petro Symonenko (Communist Party of Ukraine), and Yulia Tymoshenko (Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc) issued a joint statement concerning "the beginning of a state revolution in Ukraine." The communists left the alliance: Symonenko opposed the idea of a single candidate from the alliance in the Ukrainian presidential election of 2004, but the other three parties remained alliesUnderstanding Ukrainian Politics: Power, Politics, and Institutional Design by Paul D'Anieri, M.E. Sharpe, 2006, , page 117 until July 2006.Ukraine coalition born in chaos , BBC News (11 July 2006) (In the autumn of 2001, both Tymoshenko and Yushchenko had broached the idea of setting up such a coalition).
On 2 July 2004, Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc established the Force of the People, a coalition that aimed to stop "the destructive process that has, as a result of the incumbent authorities, become a characteristic for Ukraine"—at the time, President Kuchma and prime minister Yanukovych were the "incumbent authorities" in Ukraine. The pact included a promise by Viktor Yushchenko to nominate Tymoshenko as Prime Minister if Yushchenko won the October 2004 presidential election.Revolution in Orange: The Origins of Ukraine's Democratic Breakthrough by Anders Aslund and Michael A. McFaul, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2006,
2004 Ukraine presidential election campaign
The 2004 presidential election in Ukraine eventually featured two main candidates:
sitting prime minister Viktor Yanukovych, largely supported by Leonid Kuchma (the outgoing president who had already served two terms in office from 1994 and was precluded from running himself due to the term limits under the constitution) the opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko, leader of the Our Ukraine faction in the Ukrainian parliament and a former prime minister (in office 1999–2001)
The election took place in a highly charged atmosphere, with the Yanukovych team and the outgoing president's administration using their control of the government and state apparatus for intimidation of Yushchenko and his supporters. In September 2004 Yushchenko suffered dioxin poisoning under mysterious circumstances. While he survived and returned to the campaign trail, the poisoning undermined his health and altered his appearance dramatically (his face remains disfigured by the consequences ).
The two main candidates were neck and neck in the first-round vote held on 31 October 2004, winning 39.32% (Yanukovych) and 39.87% (Yushchenko) of the votes cast. The candidates who came third and fourth collected much less: Oleksandr Moroz of the Socialist Party of Ukraine and Petro Symonenko of the Communist Party of Ukraine received 5.82% and 4.97%, respectively. Since no candidate had won more than 50% of the cast ballots, Ukrainian law mandated a runoff vote between two leading candidates. After the announcement of the runoff, Oleksandr Moroz threw his support behind Viktor Yushchenko. The Progressive Socialist Party's Nataliya Vitrenko, who won 1.53% of the vote, endorsed Yanukovych, who hoped for Petro Symonenko's endorsement but did not receive it.Ukrainiустафа Найем, "С Президентом на «вы» ", Фокус, 2 April 2007, №13
In the wake of the first round of the election, many complaints emerged regarding voting irregularities in favour of the government-supported Yanukovych. However, clearly neither nominee performed well enough to claim an outright majority in the first round. Challenging the results would not have changed that outcome. So the complaints were not actively pursued, and both candidates concentrated on the upcoming runoff, scheduled for 21 November.
Pora! activists were arrested in October 2004, but the release of many (reportedly on President Kuchma's personal order) gave growing confidence to the opposition.Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present edited by Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash, Oxford University Press, 2009, (page 345)
Yushchenko's supporters originally adopted orange as the signifying colour of his election campaign. Later, the colour gave its name to an entire series of political labels, such as the Oranges (Pomaranchevi in Ukrainian) for his political camp and its supporters. At the time when the mass protests grew, and especially when they brought about political change in the country, the term "Orange Revolution" came to represent the entire series of events.
In view of the success of using colour as a symbol to mobilise supporters, the Yanukovych camp chose blue for themselves.
Protests