TRAVELS: Post-election Donetsk a place of profound contradictions (05/01/05)

TRAVELS: Post-election Donetsk a place of profound contradictions

by Reno Domenico

DONETSK - After visits to Ukraine over the last decade and a half, I finally have gotten to Donetsk, the heartland of the forces of Viktor Yanukovych in this past winter's Orange Revolution. And, once again, as is frequently the case in the former Soviet Union, I found a place of profound contradictions.

The city of Donetsk and the oblast of the same name that surrounds it are a hardscrabble place. You can sense it immediately upon entering the city. In some regards it reminded me of my days in Camden, N.J., where the streets were tough and you'd better be tough enough to deal with it. Donetsk is very much a similar place.

Yet, just as in Camden, the people I met and talked to were some of the warmest and friendliest you would ever want to meet. However, you'd better learn the territory before you make a false move.

You get the full mood of this city of 1.3 million inhabitants when you are greeted at the city entrance by a huge monument to the coal miners of the Donbas. The city itself appears to have an aura of coal mining - with the dust being created by the cleaning of the hard winter's dirt.

It goes without saying that the Donbas has some of the most dangerous mines in the world, not as bad as China, but as bad or worse than Russia. In 1993 I had the opportunity to visit deep in the mines of Zaporizhia - an experience I will never forget, but that's a story for another time.

That being said, the educational program I was working on went extremely well. The Donetsk Chamber of Commerce appears to be one of the most ambitious, energetic and professional institutions with which I've had the opportunity to work in Ukraine. They have established an educational institution to work alongside the chamber itself, and they are very eager to develop partnerships with American schools and students.

Once we finished working, I went to lunch with some educators. I felt comfortable to broach the subject of the revolution and resultant loss of power by the Yanukovych team, distinguished by its blue-colored trappings, as opposed to Viktor Yushchenko's Orange Revolution.

Their reaction to my questions was nothing less than astonishing.

It is quite revealing that in order to report on this discussion I am obligated to mask the true names of the people I interviewed. That tells you a lot. Suffice it to say that the discussions were real and very emotional.

When I turned the conversation to the outcome of the decisive December 26 vote, the mood at the table darkened noticeably. "Svetlana," an administrator of a university in Donetsk became noticeably emotional. Summarizing for the group, she said that to her the election was simply a power struggle between two groups and centers of power. There is a profound sense that the east of Ukraine, particularly Donetsk, has been cheated and is being discriminated against by the new government. She also expressed a belief that the election was stolen by the Yushchenko team in the final runoff.

I related my experience and those of the thousands of election observers, which was that everything done on December 26 was pretty much fair and square. This observation was met with no response.

However, "Nina," another school administrator decisively stated that now the country needs to move on. She indicated that the time had come for friends from both camps to "start talking to one another again." She became visibly upset when she described how her friends in the west of Ukraine believed that she and all of Donetsk were almost evil in their intentions. In fact, she reiterated that many people were turned to Mr. Yanukovych by the public pressure brought to bear on the entire Donbas. All here want to look forward and not back. And all remain hopeful that the new government will deliver on its promises of an open and honest government and society.

I also had the opportunity to interview an old friend from a village in the Donetsk Oblast. Yelena Dolgova related to me the following verbatim:

"My family and I have been active participants in the Tymoshenko-Yushchenko campaign in the East since 2002. During this time my family had serious pressure to stop from the local 'authority.' My mother had to close all her NGOs and to stop the credit union activity she was running successfully.

"We really fought for our president through the elections, and I am happy that we are still alive after all this revolution finished. My father was severely beaten because he helped my mother distributing Yushchenko propaganda leaflets. My sister and her family were forced to move to Kyiv after her name was printed in our local newspaper as a leader in the local Yushchenko team. As well, somebody cut the electricity to her apartment at the end of December."

The story speaks for itself.

In a country where challenges loom across the spectrum, none loom larger than the need to address the deep divisions cutting across this country. Indeed, for the Orange Revolution to succeed in transforming society, it must make a visible impact on this economically stagnant region. If not, the Yushchenko team faces the probability of facing a nearly evenly divided and angry nation in the next round of elections.

Reno Domenico, a vice-principal at Sterling High School in Somerdale, N.J., on April 6 watched Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's address to a joint session of Congress as a guest of U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, (D-N.J.). Mr. Domenico was an international observer of the Ukrainian presidential election in December; he returned for another visit to Ukraine on March 26-April 2 and visited Donetsk on March 31-April 1. It was his 37th visit to Ukraine.

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