Abstract
The parliamentary elections held primarily in March–April and the presidential elections held in June–July 1994 were a watershed in the development of post-Soviet Ukraine. The era launched by the 24 August 1991 declaration of independence and 1 December 1991 referendum under former President Leonid Kravchuk ended. That period can best be described as one of ‘romanticism’ in comparison to the ‘pragmatism’ espoused by his successor, Leonid Kuchma. Dmytro Tabachnyk, the head of the Kuchma presidential administration, has said,
If I were asked, what is the main difference between the new leadership and the one before it? I would say that the period of romanticism is over. The new government will be approaching solutions to all problems from the pragmatic position of common sense and the economic value of the decision which is made.2
‘I would love to take our deputies in parliament and send them into orbit aboard one of our rockets. We would welcome them back, say, in two years, with open arms.’
(President Leonid Kuchma1)
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Notes
See the comments by Grynev, presidential adviser on regional issues. While opposing these officials in his official capacity, he nevertheless continued to support them through the Inter-Regional Bloc of Reforms (MRBR) political party which he heads. See Informatsiynyi Builetyn URP i KNDS, 4 October 1994. See also V. B. Hryn’iov, Nova Ukraina: Iakoiu ia ii Bachu (Kyiv: Abrys, 1995).
Y. Orobets, ‘Suchasnyi Konstytutsiynyi Protses ta Formy Derzhavnoho Ustroiu v Ukraini’, in Modeli derzhavnosti ta derzhavnoho ustroiu Ukrainy na porozi XXI stolittia (Kyiv: Institute of Post Communist Society and Political Thought, 29 January 1996), pp. 9–12.
Serhiy Kudiarshov, Serhiy Odarych, Yury Orobets’ and Mykola Tomenko, Nova redaktsiya Konstytutsii: derzhavna symvolika ta symvolichna demokratiya. Ekspertna otsinka (Kyiv: Ukrainian Perspectives, 1996), summarised in Holos Ukrainy, 11 April 1996.
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© 1997 Taras Kuzio
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Kuzio, T. (1997). Political Reform and an End to the Soviet System. In: Ukraine under Kuchma. Studies in Russian and East European History and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25744-7_5
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