Reinventing the Ukrainian left: Assessing adaptability and change, 1991-2000

Slavonic and East European Review

Volumn 80, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 21-59

  Wilson, Andrew ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 0042892823     PISSN: 00376795     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (155)

1. John T. Ishiyama, 'The Communist Successor Parties and Party Organizational Development in Post-Communist Polities', Political Research Quarterly, 52, 1999, 1, pp. 87-112 (p. 88) (hereafter 'The Communist Successor Parties').
2. See also Andrew Wilson, 'The Ukrainian Left: In Transition to Social Democracy or Still in Thrall to the USSR?', Europe-Asia Studies, 49, 1997, 7, pp. 1293-316 (hereafter The Ukrainian Left');
3. and Wilson, 'The Long March of the Ukrainian Left: Backwards Towards Communism, Sideways to Social-Democracy or Forwards to Socialism?', The Masaryk Journal, 3, 2000, 1, pp. 122-40.
4. Highly recommended arc the two excellent Ukrainian studies, Oleksii Haran' and Oleksandr Maiboroda, Ideini zasady livoho rukhu v Ukraïni: chy vidbuvaiets'sia dreif do sotsial-demokratii?, Kiev, 1999 (hereafter Ideini zasady);
5. and Haran', Maiboroda et al., Ukraïns'ki livi: mizh leninizmom i sotsial-demokratiieiu, Kiev, 2000 (hereafter Ukraïns'ki livi).
6. Four out of nine in 1998, according to Peter R. Craumer and James I. Clem, 'Ukraine's Emerging Electoral Geography: A Regional Analysis of the 1998 Parliamentary Elections', Post-Soviet Geography and Economics, 40, 1999, 1, pp. 1-26 (p. 15) (hereafter 'Ukraine's Emerging Electoral Geography').
7. John T. Ishiyama, Communist Successor Parties in Post-Communbl Politics, Commack, NY, 1999. pp. 224-26.
8. Ishiyama, 'The Sickle or the Rose? Previous Regime Types and the Evolution of the Ex-Communist Parties in Post-Communist Polities', Comparative Political Studies, 30, 1997, 3, pp. 299-300;
9. Herbert Kitschelt et al., Post-Communist Parly Systems. Competition, Representation, and Inter-Party Competition, Cambridge, 1999, p. 23 (hereafter Post-Communist Party Systems).
10. Post-Communist Party Systems, p. 24.
11. Komunist, 20, 1999.
12. From Symonenko's speech to the fifth party congress in June 2000, Komunist Ukraïny, 3, 2000, p. 13.
13. Ishiyama and Sanar Shafqat, 'Party Identity Change in Post-Communist Politics: The Cases of the Successor Parties in Hungary, Poland and Russia', Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 33, 2000, 4, pp. 439-56, emphasize the two factors of 'party success' and the 'structure of political competition'.
14. Geoffrey Evans and Stephen Whitefield, 'Identifying the Bases of Party Competition in Eastern Europe', British Journal of Political Science, 23, 1993, pp. 521-48.
15. Herbert Kitschelt, 'The Formation of Party Cleavages in Post-Communist Democracies: Theoretical Propositions', Party Politics, 1995, 1, pp. 447-72.
16. John T. Ishiyama, 'Communist Parties in Transition: Structure, Leaders and Processes of Democratization in Eastern Europe', Comparative Politics, 27, 1995, pp. 146-77.
17. On the last days of the old Communist Party of Ukraine see Andrew Wilson, Ukrainian Nationalism in the 1990s: A Minority Faith, Cambridge, 1997, chapter 4 (hereafter Ukrainian Nationalism);
18. Zenovia Sochor, 'From Liberalization to Post-Communism: The Role of the Communist Party in Ukraine', Journal of Ukrainian Studies, 21, 1996, 1-2, pp. 147-63 (which carries over into the period after 1991);
19. and Volodymyr Lytvyn, Politychna arena Ukraïny: Diiovi osoby la vykonavtsi, Kiev, 1994.
20. Samuel P. Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, Norman, OK, 1991, p. 276.
21. Oleksandr Moroz, 'Zapyska v prezydiiu plenumu TsK KPU (lito 1991)', in the collection of speeches and documents, Kudy idemo? Kiev, 1993, p. 115.
22. Borys Oliinyk, Dva roky v Kremli, Kiev, 1992, p. 37;
23. Vasilii Sekachev, 'Sotsialisticheskaia partiia Ukrainy i osobennosti ukrainskoi partiinoi sistemy', in Dmitrii Furman (ed.), Ukraina i Rossiia: obshchestva i gosudarstva, Moscow, 1997, pp. 205-23 (p. 206). The latter is a useful study in its own right.
24. 'Postanova plenumu TsK Komparti'ï Ukraïny', in Stanislav Hurenko et al. (eds), Kommunisticheskaia partiia Ukrainy. khronika zapreta, Donets'k, 1992, pp. 50-51 (p. 51) (hereafter Khronika zapreta).
25. Helga Welsh, 'Political Transition Processes in Central and Eastern Europe', Comparative Politics, 26, 1994, 4, pp. 379-94;
26. Michael Waller, 'Adaptation of the Former Communist Parties of East Central Europe: A Case of Democratization?', Party Politics, I, 1995, 4, pp. 473-90.
27. Joan Barth Urban and Valerii D. Solovei, Russia's Communists at the Crossroads, Boulder, CO, 1997, pp. 21-23 (hereafter Russia's Communists).
28. Materialy ustanovchohoz''ïzdu Sotsialistycknoï partiï Ukraïny, Kiev, 1991, pp. 16, 3 and 17.
29. Programme of the Socialist Parly of Ukraine, Kiev, 1995, pp. 12-13. This variant of the party programme was actually drawn up by Nataliia Vitrenko, so much of the message is still buried in her militant language.
30. Ideini zasady, p. 35.
31. 'Sotsial'no-ekonomicheskaia i politicheskaia situatsiia na Ukraine i zadachi SPU na blizhaishie dva goda', Tovarysh, 6, 1992.
32. There is very little English-language literature on the new Ukrainian Communists. A notable exception is Joan Barth Urban, The Communist Movements in Russia and Ukraine, Washington, DC, 1998, which was updated as Urban, 'The Communist Parties of Russia and Ukraine on the Eve of the 1999 Elections: Similarities, Contrasts, and Interactions', Demokratizatsiya, 7, 1999, 1, pp. 111-34.
33. See also Urban, 'Kommunisticheskie partii Rossii, Ukrainy i Belorussii (bezuspeshnyi poisk edinstva v raznobrazii)', in Dmitrii Furman (ed.), Belorussiia i Rossiia: obshchestva i gosudartsva, Moscow, 1998, pp. 393-415. The party now has a website at www.kpu.kiev.ua.
34. 'Postanova plenumu TsK Kompartiï Ukraïny', in Khronika zapreta, p. 51.
35. Russia's Communists, pp. 24-25.
36. Sarah Birch, 'Nomenklatura Democratization, Electoral Clientelism, and Party Formation in Post-Soviet Ukraine', Democratization, 4, 1997, 4, pp. 40-62.
37. Valentyn Yakushyk (ed.), Politychni partiï Ukraïny, Kiev, 1996, p. 44 (hereafter Politychni partiï Ukraïny).
38. The Socialist Party cheekily reprinted a Ziuganov article on 'abandoning dogmas' in the party journal Tovarysh, 10, 1999.
39. From the party programme developed in 1993-94 and finalized in 1995. See 'The Ukrainian Left', p. 1300, and Partiia Kommunutov vozrozhdaetsia. Dokumenty i materialy vtorogo etapa Vseukrainskoi konferentsii i s''ezd KPU, Kherson, 1993.
40. See Petro Symonenko's introduction to the relaunch of the journal Komunist Ukraïny, 'Z vidrodzhenmam, "Komuniste Ukraïnu"!', 1 (787) 1999, pp. 3-7 (hereafter 'Z vidrodzhenniam');
41. and Petr Simonenko (Petro Symonenko), Istiny rozhdaiutsia v sporakh. . ., Kiev, 1999, passim (hereafter Istiny).
42. John T. Ishiyama, 'Sickles into Roses? The Successor Parties and Democratic Consolidation in Post-Communist Polities', Democratization, 6, 1999, 4, pp. 52-73 (p. 70) (hereafter 'Sickles into Roses').
43. Prohrama Komunistychnoï partiï Ukraïny, Kiev, 1996, p. 47, emphasis added (hereafter Prohrama Komunistychnoï partiï Ukraïny). The formulation is more typical than that appearing a few pages earlier (p. 3), defining the party as both an 'ideological [ideina] and organizational successor', emphasis again added.
44. 'Kompartiia Ukrainy v tsifrakh', Komunist Ukraïny, 2, 2000, pp. 36 and 38 (hereafter 'Kompartiia Ukrainy').
45. Tezy do 80-richchia Komunistychnoï partiï Ukraïny (1918-1998 rr.). Kiev, 1998.
46. The 'Theses' were in fact so conservative -even more conservative than the survey published by the old party in 1990 - that the party leadership decided not to publish them. See also Symonenko, 'O 80-letii Kommunisticheskoi partii Ukrainy', Komunist, 29, 1998.
47. For the 1990 version, see 'Zaiava XXVIII z''kzdu Kompartiï Ukraïny pro stavlennia do istorychnoho mynuloho', Materialy XXVIII z''ïzdu Komunistychnoï partiï Ukraïny (Druhyi etap), Kiev, 1991, pp. 110-12.
48. After 1999 Symonenko shifted slightly, accepting the danger of 'the alienation of youth from the party', and claiming that 'the Communist Party [. . .] has never distanced itself from the repressions and abuses which were committed in the course of building socialism'; Symonenko, 'Vyklyk chasu i Kompartiia Ukraïny', Komunist, 26 (June) 2000, p. 3 - at the same time as stressing that many of Stalin's achievements 'were great, historical' (hereafter 'Vyklyk chasu').
49. Oleksandr Hosh, 'Ideolohiia derzhavy - chy mozhlyva vona?', Komunist Ukraïny, 1, 1999, pp. 42-49.
50. Komunist, 46 and 52, 1999;
51. Ukraïns'ki livi, p. 234.
52. Volodymyr Orlov, 'Leninskaia partia avangardnogo tipa', Komunist Ukraïny, 2, 2000, pp. 18-34 (p. 22);
53. Petro Symonenko, 'Leninizm - nasha znamia', in ibid., pp. 5-17 (p. 7) (hereafter 'Leninizm').
54. 'Z vidrodzhenniam', p. 7.
55. Volodymyr Orlov, 'Takie raznye predvybornye programmy', Komunist Ukraïny, 2, 1999, pp. 8-16 (p. 15). The original is in Russian, with the word 'independence' mockingly printed in Ukrainian.
56. Prohrama Komunistychnoï partiï Ukraïny, p. 26.
57. Volodymyr Balenok, 'Bezsmertne vchennia pro bezsmertnu ideiu', Komunist Ukraïny, 1, 1999, pp. 8-16.
58. Comments made by Communist deputy Vasyl' Tereshchuk, speaking at the round-table published in Komunist Ukraïny, 1, 2000, pp. 21-28 (p. 28).
59. 'Leninizm', pp. 11, 10 and 15.
60. See the comments made by the Communist theoretician Ivan Khmil' at a round-table in Kiev to discuss Haran' and Maiboroda's first book in September 1999, Komunist Ukraïny, 2, 1991 pp. 93-94.
61. Ukraïns'ki livi, p. 82, quoting Volodymyr Kizima of the SPU.
62. From the Communist Party's 1998 election programme in Hryhorii Andrushchak et al., Vybory '98, Kiev, 1998, p. 10;
63. Komunist Ukraïny, 4, 2000, p. 47.
64. Istiny, pp. 35 and 87.
65. On this issue during the USSR's actual existence, compare Rogers Brubaker, who argues in his Nationalism Refrained: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe, Cambridge, 1996, p. 28, that the 'emergent [Soviet] entity was explicitly conceived as supra-national, not national';
66. and Roman Szporluk, who in Russia, Ukraine, and the Breakup of the Soviet Union, Stanford, CA, 2000, p. xxxv, states that 'I continue to believe that the Soviet state tried to create a Soviet nation and in the course of several decades claimed to have succeeded'.
67. Borys Oliinyk, Khto nastupnyi?, Kiev, 1999.
68. See also the selection of Oliinyk's poetry under the title 'Khto zh tse nashu khatu rozvalyv?', in Tovarysh, 30, 2000.
69. From Symonenko's speech to the 1993 party congress, Partiia Kommunistov vozrozhdaetsia, p. 23;
70. and the 1998 programme, Vybory '98, p. 10. 'Natural development' is a euphemism for maintaining the linguistic status quo.
71. Andrew Wilson and Sarah Birch, 'Voting Stability, Political Gridlock: Ukraine's 1998 Parliamentary Elections', Europe-Asia Studies, 51, 1999, 6, pp. 1039-68 (p. 1049) (hereafter 'Voting Stability').
72. 'Kompartiia Ukrainy', p. 36.
73. Serhii Hrabovs'kyi, 'Petro Symonenko oholosyv v Ukraïni rekonkistu', Den', 22 April 1997, uses the populist term 'Soviet national-socialism'.
74. Komunist, 36, 1998.
75. A smaller group of twenty, 'For the Union of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia', appeared in January 2001: RFE/RL Daily Report, 18 January 2001.
76. Serhii Syrovats'kyi, 'Pratoslavia i stanovlenie dukhovnykh osnov obshchestva', Komunist Ukraïny, 2, 2000, pp. 74-76 (p. 76) (hereafter 'Pravoslavia').
77. Petro Symonenko, 'Komunisty pro tserkvu ta iï roi' u zhytti suchasnoï Ukraïny', Holos Ukraïny, 26 May 1999, pp. 6-7 (hereafter 'Komunisty pro tserkvu');
78. For a Socialist version of the anti-Catholic position, see Irina Markovskaia, 'Ukrainskii Ol'ster, ili dlia kogo my sami sebia zavoevyvaem?', Tovarysh, 12, 1998.
79. Vadym Halynovs'kyi, 'Problemy mizhrelihiinykh stosunkiv u prohramakh kandydativ u Prezydenty Ukraïny', Vybory-99, 1, 1999, pp. 30-32 (p. 32) - referring to Symonenko's broadcast on 28 September.
80. 'Pravoslavia', p. 74;
81. Vladyslav Suiarko, 'Relihiinyi i politychnyi klerykalizm', Komunist Ukraïny, 2, 1999, pp. 41-47 (p. 43).
82. Nataliia Vitrenko, 'Otkrytoe pis'mo Pervomu sekretariu TsK KPU Petro Simonenko', dated 1999, www.vitrenko.kiev.ua.
83. 'Prohrama Sotsialistychnoï partiï Ukraïny. Nova redaktsiia', Tovarysh, 10, 2000, p. 2 (hereafter 'Prohama Sotsialistychnoï ').
84. 'Prohrama Sotsialistychnoï', p. 2.
85. Only five parties would have crossed a 5% barrier. The CPU would then have won 104 out of 225 list seats (46.2%): calculations from Parlament, 1, 2001, p. 23.
86. Ukrainian Nationalism, p. 136.
87. Compare the calculations in Sarah Birch, Elections and Democratization in Ukraine, Basingstoke, 2000, p. 84 - using a slightly different database.
88. See the commentary in Komunist, 16, 1994.
89. Sources: 'The Ukrainian Left', p. 1303;
90. 'Voting Stability', p. 1040;
91. See the speech by Iosyp Vins'kyi, head of the Moroz campaign, 'Uroky vyboriv Prezydenta Ukraïny', Tovarysh, 49, 1999 (hereafter 'Uroky vyboriv Prezydenta Ukraïny').
92. Volodymyr Kizima, 'SPU - partiia pravogo poriadka, aktivnogo neitraliteta i libertizma', Tovarysh, 36, 1994; author's interview with Kizima, 6 February 1996.
93. See also the two articles by Kizima in the party journal Vybir, 1-2, 1997, pp. 97-118 and 138-42. Kizima took over the editing of the journal from Vitrenko in 1996.
94. Politychni partiï Ukraïny, p. 55.
95. Serhii Moruhin, writing in Stolichnye novosti, 1-14 July 1998
96. From Moroz's speech to the congress, Novyi kurs Ukraïny, Kiev, 1998, pp. 13 and 21 (hereafter Noiyi kurs Ukraïny).
97. For a Communist attack on the 'vulgar socialism' of the Socialists' post-1998 ideological approach, see Ivan Hrushchenko, 'O sotsialn'noi strukture obshchestva i obostrennii antagonisticheskikh protivorechii v strane', Komunist Ukraïny, 3, 2000, pp. 49-54.
98. 'Joint programme of the Socialist and Rural parties', Vyboty '98, p. 51;
99. 'Election programme of Oleksandr Moroz', in Mykola Tomenko et al (eds.), Pravo vyboru: Prezydent Ukraïny-1999, Kiev, 1999, p. 73.
100. The Romyr Report, 3, 2000, p. 8.
101. See the debate in Tovarysh, 48, 1999;
102. and 'Uroky vyboriv Prezydenta Ukraïny'.
103. Although the party journal Vybir, 1-2, 2000 reproduced material from the Socialist International, including the Blair-Schroeder declaration.
104. Moroz at the party's eighth congress in May 2000, Pro Zemliu, Konstytutsiiu i ne til'ky. . . Kiev, 2000, p. 118.
105. Ideini zasady, p. 57.
106. Jamestown Monitor, 15 December 1999, 3 and 23 February 2000.
107. 'Petro Symonenko: shchaslyvyi peremozhenyi', in Volodymyr Ruban (ed.), Naperedodni. Vybory '99, Kiev, 1999, pp. 22-25 (p. 24).
108. Symonenko in Tovarysh, 32, 1998.
109. For the distinctly unenthusiastic reply, see the open letter, 'Politychnii Radi Sotsialistychnoï partiï Ukraïny', Komunist Ukraïny, 1, 2001, pp. 42-43.
110. 'Do hromadian Ukraïny. Zvernennia kandydativ u Prezydenty Ukraïny', Komunist, 45, 1999, p. 1.
111. and Symonenko's speech in ibid. (p. 15).
112. See also Yuliia Tyshchenko, Vybory-99: yak i koho my obyraly, Kiev, 1999, especially pp. 212-44.
113. Kommersant'-Daily, 26 October 1999;
114. See also the denial of party splits in Komunist, 42, 1999; and, for a Socialist critique of Communist tactics, 'Uroky vyboriv Prezydenta Ukraïny'.
115. Central Committee member Borys Novikov, speaking at the round-table in Komunist Ukraïny, 1, 2000, p. 21.
116. 'Vyklyk chasu', p. 2.
117. Symonenko, 'O politicheskikh itogakh vyborov Prezydenta Ukrainy', Komunist, 49, 1999;
118. Symonenko, 'O politicheskoi situatsii i zadachakh partiinykh organizatsii', Komunist, 10, 2000, pp. 2-3 (p. 3).
119. Charles Bukowski and Barnabas Racz (eds.), The Return of the Left in Post-Communist States: Current Trends and Future Prospects, Cheltenham, 1999.
120. Mikhail Pogrebinskii, 'Prezidentskie vybory na Ukraine', Nezavisimaia gazeta, 17 August 1999, p. 5.
121. Nataliia Vitrenko, Spasti Ukrainu, Kharkiv, 1997;
122. The party journal Markizm i sovremennost' displays a clear all-Soviet mentality. See, inter alia, no. 1, 1998.
123. Workers' Power, (United Kingdom) March 2000, p. 13.
124. Ukraïns'ki livi, p. 116.
125. Sekachev, 'Sotsialisticheskaia partiia Ukrainy', p. 213.
126. As argued by Moroz himself. See Novyi kurs Ukraïny, pp. 13-15;
127. and Tovarysh, 25, 1998.
128. and the highly detailed maps in Yurii Shaihorods'kyi (ed.), Vybory 98. Dokumenty, statystychni dani, analiz, Kiev, 1998, endmaps nos. 12 and 27.
129. 'Voting Stability', pp. 1047-51 and 1053-57;
130. 'Ukraine's Emerging Electoral Geography', pp. 18-19 and 22-23;
131. Vicki L. Hesli, William M. Reisinger and Arthur H. Miller, 'Political Party Development in Divided Societies: The Case of Ukraine', Electoral Studies, 17, 1998, 2, pp. 235-56.
132. See, also, the commentary in Ideini zasady, p. 35.
133. Iryna Bereshkina, ' Vybory-98 yak protses politychnoho samovyznachennia naselennia', Politychnyi portret Ukraïny, 21, 1998,pp. 18-28 (p. 24).
134. See the party programmes in Politychni partiï Ukraïny, pp. 410-12 and 5-10 (p. 6).
135. See the database of the University of Essex et al, at www.essex.ac.uk/elections.
136. Ukrainian Regional Project: Data Book, regtab. 052.
137. Ukrainian Institute of Social Research, Monitoring hromads'koï dumky naselennia Ukraïny, Kiev, 5, 1999, pp. 11-12.
138. KIIS Omnibus Survey, November 1999; as quoted in Sarah Birch, 'The Ukrainian Presidential Election of 1999', paper presented at the LSE, December 1999.
139. See also the analysis prepared by Valerii Khmel'ko in Ukraïns'ki livi, pp. 208-13.
140. Sarah Birch and Andrew Wilson, 'Political Parties in Ukraine: Virtual and Representational', in Paul Webb et al, Political Parties at the Millennium: Emergence, Adaptation and Decline in Democratic Societies, Oxford, 2001.
141. Urban, The Communist Movements in Russia and Ukraine, p. 2.
142. See the blistering attack by Symonenko and Kriuchkov, 'Ne mozhna nekhtuvaty voliu narodu. Chomu komunisty ne mozhut' pidtrymaty novyi proekt Konstytutsiï?', Holos Ukraïny, 26 December 1995.
143. Ukraïns'ki livi, p. 114.
144. For example Rukh, at its 1992 congress declared itself 'against the recreation of Communist Party structures under "renovated" hoardings'; Ukhvala III Vseukraïns'kykh zboriv Narodnoho Rukhu Ukraïny, document in author's possession, p. 3.
145. The two parties were originally supposed to be allocated 25% of the places on the Progressive Socialists' list: Vasyl' Yablons'kyi and Yaroslav Latko, Suchasni politychni partiï Ukraïny, Kiev, 1999, p. 17.
146. Sergei Rakhmanin, 'Fraktsiia "deputatskoc assorti"', Zerkalo nedeli, 4 March 2000.
147. RFE/ RL Daily Report, 13 March 2000.
148. Eastern Economist, 24-30 July 2000. Would-be party leader Mykhailo Savenko, then of Working Ukraine, had originally been elected as a 'Progressive Socialist' in 1998.
149. Kommersant-Daily, 18 July 2000. After the Gongadze scandal burst on Kuchma in November 2000, however, it was possible that the powers-that-be might lay off the Communists in return for not pushing the issue in parliament. Greater state influence on the party might then encourage it to embrace the kind of reform options it seemed incapable of choosing on its own, and/or increase the tension between leadership and rank-and-file.
150. Komunist, 10, 2000.
151. The quotations are from the commentary 'Pisliamova "Komunist Ukraïny"', in ibid. (pp. 77 and 75).
152. Compare the polemic by the people's deputy and 'gas baron' Ivan Diiak, Khlo zakhystyt' nosh narod i derhavu: Komunistychna partiia Ukraïny chy Ukraïns'ka komunistychna partiia? Shtrykhy do utoriï ta s'ohodennia Kompartiï Ukraïny, Kiev, 2000.
153. Parlament, 1, 2001, p. 49. The Communists were down to 111 members by December 2000.
154. Interfax-Ukraine, 9 September 1997.
155. R.W. Johnson, The Long March of the French Left, London, 1981.