Hugh D. Hudson Jr.: A Chance for True Democracy in Ukraine (At Last!)

Hugh D. Hudson, Jr., in Atlanta Journal-Constitution 12-2-04):

[ Hugh D. Hudson Jr. chairs the department of history at Georgia State University.]

I confess that as a historian of Russia and Eastern Europe, I have never been a great fan of Ukrainian nationalism. Far too often during the past century, certain Ukrainian nationalists have sought to resolve their national strivings through association with some of the worst of European politics and culture, from the Kaiser's invaders in 1914-1918 to the Nazis in World War II.

In between, the people of Ukraine, mostly peasants prior to the 1960s, have suffered depredation and massive death as the Soviet Union seized the power of the state and army. The rulers of Ukraine, trapped in some belief in one or another national or political myth, have proved themselves all but indifferent to this suffering.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, little changed. Power was seized by a Soviet-era thug, Leonid Kuchma, whose rule included by all accounts the use of murder to silence opposition. With so-called freedom came economic collapse. Even today, with Kuchma and his mafioso continuing to profit from seizing control of the economy, Ukraine's gross national product stands at only some 60 percent of what it was during the last years of the Soviet Union. Anti-Semitism and xenophobia reared their grotesque heads. Ukraine resembled the failed states of 1930s Eastern Europe.

Last week, Ukraine held elections, and the results appeared predictable [after evidence of gross election fraud surfaced]....

I awaited the secret police, the water cannons, the proverbial tanks. I knew the students, alone, would suffer the fate of those on Tiananmen Square. Even without the tanks, the bitter cold would do its worst to force the students and their allies off the streets. Putin, Kuchma and Yanukovych could then drink their vodka in triumph.

But over the weekend, police cadets marched to join the ranks of the democratic opposition. A general of the security forces appeared on the stage erected in the square to stand next to Yushchenko. The Supreme Court refused to permit the certification of the election. The Supreme Rada [parliament] declared the election invalid. And most importantly, Kuchma and his police hesitated even as Putin ranted about Western interference.

Putin wants a Ukraine firmly within the Russian orbit for perceived security as well as economic and prestige concerns. Kuchma wants his appointed thug in power to prevent any investigations into the crime and corruption that has marked Ukrainian politics and society over the past 13 years of "freedom." The students and a growing proportion of the Ukrainian population want a chance to see if democracy might finally be possible in this land that has never known it.

For the first time in its history, some in Ukraine, perhaps even a majority, are demonstrating a commitment to democratic values, at least electoral ones.