For those of you who came in late, in 2004 there was a popular revolution in Ukraine. And while that Orange-clad uprising failed to leave the nation basking in a happily-ever-after future, it was a revolution that, contrary to the famous dictum, didn’t eat its children.
The map remains the same, with the awe-inspiring, monumental capital of Kyiv at its heart, irrepressible Odesa and striking Crimea on its southern shores, plus cosy central-European Lviv near rolling western hills. Several years down the track, the industrial, pro-Russian east has forgotten its threat to secede.
Nonetheless, the Ukraine you’re visiting today is not the country that previously existed. ‘Post-Orange Ukraine’ might have the political blues as successive parliamentary stalemates drag out, but its press is freer, its attitudes more open and its economy improving. Memories of demonstrating on ‘the maydan’ (Kyiv’s Independence Square) still fuel increased civic awareness. There’s fledgling democracy instead of autocracy, fair elections and a tolerance of genuine public debate. At the same time, the unfulfilled promises of a weakened president have injected a sense of realism, if not cynicism.
Ukraine, whose name means ‘borderland’, is slowly, and sometimes indecisively, shifting. You still frequently encounter the surly, unhelpful bureaucracy that reigned when this was part of the Soviet Union, but now it’s tempered by widespread aspirations to eventually join the EU. The younger generation, central to the Orange Revolution, are looking forward and revelling in newfound freedoms. Traditionalists, meanwhile, are concerned about floating too far out of neighbouring Russia’s orbit.
A patchwork nation, as contemporary pundits like to call it, Ukraine draws on numerous historical influences, and as a patchwork nation it’s searching for unifying 21st-century symbols. The dominant culture is Slavic, but Scythian gold is still hoarded in the history museum at Kyiv’s Kievo-Pecherska Lavra (Caves Monastery) and Byzantine mosaics line the capital’s St Sophia’s Cathedral.
The golden domes of myriad Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox cathedrals gleam out across one of Europe’s poorest nations. Yet, among the rocky outcrops of fascinating Crimea, you’ll also find Turkic architecture, not to mention ancient cave cities. The country’s marauding Cossacks are remembered on the Dnipro River’s Khortytsya Island, as well as in musical and dance rituals.
Not all Ukrainians get an equal (duck-) kick out of all these traditions. The Russian-speaking east, centre and south might take pride in Cossack history, but the Ukrainian-speaking west of the country lionises the native Hutsul culture of the Carpathians, while the Crimean Tatars are making a comeback on their homeland peninsula.
So any success that post-Orange Ukraine achieves is a building-block towards a new national identity. By hosting the Eurovision song contest in 2005, abolishing most visas to welcome more overseas tourists, being chosen to co-host the European Football Championships in 2012 and even angling for the 2018 Winter Olympics, this once-overlooked country hopes to show off its increasing capabilities to the world.
Meanwhile, it wants to prove them to all Ukrainians, too.
Last updated: Oct 1, 2008
