Overview
2004 and 2013-2014 are watershed years in the development of contemporary Ukraine. The Orange Revolution of 2004 emerged as a result of fraudulent results in a run-off vote for the Ukrainian presidency between a more Euro-centric and westward-looking candidate Viktor Yushchenko and a pro-Kremlin candidate Viktor Yanukovych. Returns from the second round of voting were marred by allegations of fraud that seemed to be tipping the balance in favor of Yanukovych, and protesters gathered in Kyiv by the thousands to peacefully demonstrate against the results and called for a free and fair revote. Due to the pressure of protestors, a new round of voting occurred on December 26th and Yushchenko emerged as the winner of the presidency.
For an account of Ukraine's Orange Revolution, see:
Karatnycky, Adrian. “Ukraine’s Orange Revolution.” Foreign Affairs 84, no. 2 (2005): 35–52. http://ezproxy.lib.uconn.edu/login?url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20034274.
The Euromaidan Protests/Maidan Revolution/Revolution of Dignity/Revolution of Honour was a student protest movement that sought to force the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to sign an agreement of association with the European Union. The mass protests were focused in and around Kyiv's Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti/Майдан Незалежності) and turned violent. The movement forced an end to the Yanukovych presidency and the creation of a unity government in early 2014. The effects of the Maidan Revolution led Russian President Vladimir Putin to annex Crimea and support a pro-Russian separatist movement in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which set the stage for Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
For a short introduction to the Maidan Revolution and its aftereffects, see the following:
BBC News. “Ukraine’s Revolution: Making Sense of a Year of Chaos,” November 21, 2014, sec. Europe. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30131108.
Shapovalova, Natalia. “From the Square to Politics After Ukraine’s Euromaidan Protests - After Protest: Pathways Beyond Mass Mobilization.” Carnegie Europe. Accessed March 8, 2022. https://carnegieeurope.eu/2019/10/24/from-square-to-politics-after-ukraine-s-euromaidan-protests-pub-80144.
Revolution in Orange by ISBN: 9780870033254Publication Date: 2006The dramatic series of protests and political events that unfolded in Ukraine in the fall of 2004--the "Orange Revolution"--were seminal both for Ukrainian history and the history of democratization. Pro-Western presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin, an industrial pollutant that left him weakened and horribly disfigured. When this assassination attempt failed, the Kremlin-backed ruling party resorted to voter intimidation and massive electoral fraud to win the runoff election. Supporters of Yushchenko responded with a series of strikes, sit-ins, and marches throughout Ukraine. Thanks in large part to this peaceful revolution, the election results were annulled. In a second runoff, Yushchenko was elected as the new president. Revolution in Orange seeks to explain why and how this nationwide protest movement occurred. Its effects have already been felt from Kyrgyzstan to Lebanon and are likely to travel even further. Yet few predicted or anticipated such a dramatic democratic breakthrough in Ukraine. This volume attempts to distinguish between necessary and facilitating factors in the success of the Orange Revolution. It also discusses the elements that have been commonly assumed to be critical but, in fact, were not instrumental in the movement. Chapters explore the role of former President Kuchma and the oligarchs, societal attitudes, the role of the political opposition and civil society, the importance of the media, and the roles of Russia and the West
Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post-Cold War Order by ISBN: 9780262327824Publication Date: 2015Puts the conflict in historical perspective by examining the evolution of the crisis and assessing its implications both for the Crimean peninsula and for Russia's relations with the West more generally. Experts in the international relations of post-Soviet states, political scientists Rajan Menon and Eugene Rumer clearly show what is at stake in Ukraine, explaining the key economic, political, and security challenges and prospects for overcoming them. They also discuss historical precedents, sketch likely outcomes, and propose policies for safeguarding U.S.-Russia relations in the future.
The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution by ISBN: 9780300218688Publication Date: 2018A vivid and intimate account of the Ukrainian Revolution, the rare moment when the political became the existential What is worth dying for? While the world watched the uprising on the Maidan as an episode in geopolitics, those in Ukraine during the extraordinary winter of 2013-14 lived the revolution as an existential transformation: the blurring of night and day, the loss of a sense of time, the sudden disappearance of fear, the imperative to make choices. In this lyrical and intimate book, Marci Shore evokes the human face of the Ukrainian Revolution. Grounded in the true stories of activists and soldiers, parents and children, Shore's book blends a narrative of suspenseful choices with a historian's reflections on what revolution is and what it means. She gently sets her portraits of individual revolutionaries against the past as they understand it-and the future as they hope to make it. In so doing, she provides a lesson about human solidarity in a world, our world, where the boundary between reality and fiction is ever more effaced.
Ukraine Crisis: What It Means for the West by Call Number: DK508.849 .W55 2014ISBN: 9780300211597Publication Date: 2014The Ukraine issue has rapidly escalated into a major geopolitical crisis, the most severe test of the relationship between Russia and the West since the Cold War. And it is far from resolved. Andrew Wilson's account situates the crisis within Russia's covert ambition since 2004 to expand its influence within the former Soviet periphery, and over countries that have since joined the EU and NATO, such as the Baltic States. He shows how Russia has spent billions developing its soft power within central Europe, aided by US diplomatic inattention in the area, and how Putin's conservative values project is widely misunderstood in he West. The book examines Yanukovych's corrupt 'coup d'etat' of 2010 and provides the most intimate day-by-day account we have of the protests in Kiev from November 2013 to February 2014 (at which Wilson was present). It explores the military coup in Crimea, the role of Russia and long-term tensions with the Muslim Crimean Tatars. It covers the election of 25 May 2014 and the prospects for new president Petro Poroshenko. And it analyses other states under pressure from Russia - Georgia, Moldova, Belarus.
Ukraine's Orange Revolution by Call Number: JN6635 .W55 2005ISBN: 9780300112900Publication Date: 2005The remarkable popular protest in Kiev and across Ukraine following the cooked presidential election of November 2004 has transformed the politics of eastern Europe. Andrew Wilson here looks behind the headlines to ascertain what really happened and how it will affect the future of the region." "It is a dramatic story: an outgoing president implicated via secret tape-recordings in corruption and murder; a shadowy world of political cheats and manipulators; the massive covert involvement of Putin's Russia; the attempted poisoning of the opposition challenger; and finally the mass protest of half a million Ukrainians which forced a second poll and the victory of Viktor Yushchenko." "As well as giving an account of the election and its aftermath, the book examines the broader implications of the Orange Revolution and of Russia's serious miscalculation of its level of influence. It explores the likely chain reaction in Moldova, Belarus and the nervous autocracies of the Caucasus, and points to a historical transformation of the geopolitics of Eurasia. The book looks in close detail at the leaders of the Orange Revolution, and questions whether they can deliver the radical changes promised.
