Ukraine Journey
Normally, you wouldn’t associate the words Supreme Court, President, National Security, and Constitution with Ukraine, especially since this European country was long associated with Russia Communism. But that’s exactly what Ukraine’s new government is all about. The Ukraine-Russia relationship began in the 18th century.
It was 1918 that Ukraine originally declared independence, becoming known as the Soviet Republic. This was short-lived freedom. Ukraine found itself returned to Russian rule. Ukraine accomplished complete sovereignty on August 24, 1991, under the leadership of President Leonid Kravchuk. Most credit, however, goes to the collapse of the Soviet Union. This began the slow reformation of the Ukraine Republic.
Violent protests against his government corruption
Republic governments hardly ever come as a smooth transition. 1998 brought a financial crisis, and President Leonid Kuchma was forced to retire in 2004 due to violent protests against his government corruption and murder accusations. So naturally, his place would have to be filed after holding an election. Ukraine gives you about fifteen political parties to choose from, such as the Republican, Ukraine People’s Party, Social Democratic, The Communist Party of Ukraine, Progressive Socialist, and It’s Time! Party.
Dirty campaign tactics found a new meaning in Ukraine’s historic election. Viktor Yanukovich, candidate of Our Ukraine-Peoples Self Defense Party, almost ended his political career permanently by being hospitalized for dioxin poisoning. Accusations circulated of fraudulent runoff election set protesters into the famous Orange Revolution. Yanukovich’s opponent from the Party of Regions, Viktor Yushchenko, and his supporters flooded cities like Kyiv in Yushchenko’s campaign color, orange.
Reelection resulted from this protest, beginning a much-needed transformation. Reformed election laws were produced after seeing the havoc of this campaign. Campaign survivor, Viktor Yushchenko won the election as President in 2005 and the Prime Minister became his defeated Viktor Yanukovych. Yushchenko vowed to end corruption within the business and government world of Ukraine, despite the many accusations against him of favoritism.
Citizens of Ukraine,
Over one hundred years in the making, the country’s transitions both politically and historically greatly affect the citizens of Ukraine, who can shed quite a perspective of the effects this has had on their society. Katalin Kovach, while a native to Ukraine’s western neighbor, Hungary, moved in 1997 to many different areas of Ukraine. Coming from outside the country and the situation, Kati brought a fresh view of the impact Ukraine’s changing world has had on the people.
In her time at Kyiv, Kati traveled to the historic riverbank, site to the large Orthodox Church. There stands a large statue of a lady with a sword in her hand famously known as Mother Russia but referred to by locals as, Big Mama or The Found Mother. This structure was intended to be the Ukrainian version of The Statue of Liberty. Although, not many people consider it to be a worthwhile attraction. Kati herself said that Ukrainians hate it because the communists built it up and people say they desecrated the church site.
Ukraine is still saturated with Russian influence. Kati was surprised to find she speak mostly Russian in all of Ukraine. Only in the North Eastern Region do they speak Ukrainian. That splits the languages in Ukraine between their native Ukrainian and Russian. The Black Sea spans the southern shores. Amongst this scenic view, you can see the largest fleet of the Russian Navy floating in the midst. I wouldn’t recommend swimming too far out from the shore.
Political reformation
This political reformation has created the Ukrainian people’s distrust in all their government officials. Kati was able to interact with a lot of locals, and they all felt they had undoubtedly been mistreated. In Kati’s words, They felt tricked because of their belief in communism. Life after communism was promised to be better, but again they were tricked. Money was gone, jobs were gone, and all opportunities for a better life also seemed to be gone, so their hope was gone too.
The economic crisis has hardly helped with the despairing population. Even those with jobs experience intense hardship. Kati observed these conditions first hand. She said she saw so many people who went to work each day and never get their payment until the end of the year, and their payment was a sack of potatoes.
The people survive off of each other by raising their own animals, like cows, and growing gardens to trade and help feed each other to stay alive. Kati spent much time inside these people’s homes, and only saw a reflection of hopelessness. She saw many of these people have just become burnt out.
The future of Ukraine depends on the building of hope for a country that has passed through many flags and false promises. Independence is never an easy price to pay. While freedom has only been theirs for 16 years, perhaps time will build this nation into the vision the leaders have sought after for Ukraine.
