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Further Reading

1991-1994 - President Leonid M. Kravchuk

Following free elections held on December 1, 1991, Leonid M. Kravchuk, former Chairman of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet, was elected president for a five-year term. At the same time, a referendum on independence was approved by more than 90% of the voters. Political groupings in Ukraine include former communists, socialists, agrarians, nationalists and various centrist and independent forces. The durability and effectiveness of a new post-Soviet commmonwealth depended heavily on under strong pressure from nationalist forces to pursue independence. Before the election, Kravchuk looked for opportunities to demonstrate his commitment to protecting Ukrainian sovereignty, even if it meant publicly supporting withdrawal from the "10 + 1" process and going for complete independence.

The presidential election on 01 December in Ukraine spawned a heated race between parliamentary chairman Leonid Kravchuk and his nationalist opponents. Kravchuk was the front-runner. Although tainted by his Communist past and his perceived indecisiveness during the coup attempt, his strengths as a consensus builder and astute politician kept his position strong, and he won a landslide victory. Moreover, his vision of an independent Ukraine as part of a loose economic association and a collective security arrangement appealled to the majority of the voters. Kravchuk wanted to bridge regional differences between the Russified east and the nationalistic west.

The leading challenger, endorsed by the nationalist organization Rukh, was Vyacheslav Chornovil. He and other nationalist candidates supported the goal of complete independence within 18 months. Chornovil expressed reluctance to hand over to Russia nuclear weapons situated on Ukrainian territory. The increasing strength of anti-Communist, separatist sentiment since the coup bolstered Chornovil's prospects, but he and other nationalist candidates, such as Lev Lukyanenko, did not have as much support in the populous eastern and southern Ukraine.

The Soviets believed they had solved the problem of nationalism and ethnic conflict within their multinational state. But nationalism was in fact the gravedigger of the Soviet system. As the center disintegrated and Gorbachev opened up the political process with glasnost (openness), the old communist "barons" in the republics saw the handwriting on the wall and became nationalists; they "first of all attacked the USSR government . . . and subsequently destroyed the USSR."f Asked when he decided to secede from the USSR, Ukrainian party boss Leonid Kravchuk replied: "1989."

After Kravchuk won the presidential election, Ukraine agreed to an associate status in the CIS and continued a measure of cooperation on economic and military issues. Ukraine depended on Russia for imports of crude oil and other energy supplies. Russia and other republics dependheavily on Ukraine for food. Opposition to total independence by Russians, Russified Ukrainians, and other ethnic groups living in Ukraine posed a threat to political stability, raised border issues with Russia, and made bilateral cooperation more difficult. Disagreement over control of military assets on Ukrainian territory intensified.

On Dec. 25, 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved. Ukraine and most of the other formerSoviet republics created a loose association called the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to deal with economic and military problems caused by the breakup. While some statessaw the Commonwealth as a means of preserving common economic and cultural ties, manyUkrainians viewed the CIS as a temporary association. They feared a commonwealth led byRussia would limit Ukrainian independence. Ukraine and Russia argued over many issues,including how the Soviet Navy's Black Sea fleet should be divided. In May 1992, Russia's Supreme Soviet voted to declare the Soviet government's 1954 grant of Crimea to Ukraine anillegal act. Ukraine opposed this decision.

With her independence in 1991, Ukraine was faced with the enormous task of building anentire government. Whole ministries had to be established either from scratch or by upgradingexisting agencies to cabinet level. Elections on 10 July 1994 resulted in a peaceful transfer ofpower between then president Leonid Kravchuk and the new president Leonid Kuchma, who served as prime minister under Leonid Kravchuk from October 1992. The man who led Ukraine to independence, Leonid M. Kravchuk, was the party secretary in charge of ideology until a few months before the collapse of communism - the very same man who used to denounce the use of the Ukrainian language as 'bourgeoisie nationalism.'" Even though Kravchuk had ties to the former Soviet regime, he sought to strengthen Ukraine's sovereignty and improve relations with the West. Kravchuk stated, "The best guarantee to Ukraine's security would be membership to NATO."

Ukraine's first elected president, Leonid Kravchuk, always had a romantic following in the Ukrainian diaspora. Many, particularly from the older generation, credited him for Ukraine's achievement of independent statehood, something they never expected to see in their lifetime. To others, Kravchuk was an old-line Communist who refused to change and nearly drove the economy into ruin.