Turning the pages back... November 21, 2004 (11/20/05)

Turning the pages back...

November 21, 2004

Last year on November 21, The Ukrainian Weekly published a story headlined "Ukrainians see orange - everywhere," by Yana Sedova, then a free-lance correspondent who wrote for our paper. (Since then Ms. Sedova has become an invaluable member of our Kyiv Press Bureau staff.) Following are excerpts from her story, which provides a snapshot of Ukraine as the Orange Revolution was about to begin.

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For the first time in recent history, Ukrainian citizens of all ages are showing their political preferences openly. Today you could say they are wearing them on their sleeves, literally, as well as on their heads and backs. And orange definitely has become the color of the season. ... Kyiv has orange fever.

While official orange-colored banners and flags have been staples at rallies and gatherings of the supporters of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko since he declared his candidacy in early autumn, a much more spontaneous phenomenon appeared in Kyiv in the days immediately before the first round of elections on October 31. Increasingly one began to see orange ribbons tied to car antennas and telephone polls.

Then, early on the morning of October 29, adherents of Mr. Yushchenko came out onto the streets and decorated trees and posts on whole blocks of the capital city. ...

With a second round of voting approaching and the choices strikingly clear, Kyiv is adorned in orange. While the trees are now leafless, they still wear orange strips. Orange banners hang from office and apartment balconies. Drivers with strips of orange attached to bumpers or antennas give the thumbs up as they pass one another.

... Near subway stations, where mini-bazaars are found, as well as in the more traditional city bazaars, orange-colored apparel is hard to come by. ...The local staff of the campaign team of Mr. Yushchenko has been besieged by Kyivans who want some campaign attribute of their presidential candidate and, of course, in the color orange. ...

The ever combative lawmaker, Yulia Tymoshenko, in remarks to a sea of orange-clad Yushchenko supporters who had gathered on Independence Square a week after the October 31 vote, said she hoped that those in the political establishment would be seeing orange by the time the run-off vote occurred. "I want them to think of Mr. Yushchenko every time they eat an orange. I want them to think of Mr. Yushchenko every time they drink a bottle of orange Fanta," stated Ms. Tymoshenko. "I want Viktor Yanukovych to dream in orange on the night before November 21."

Source: "Ukrainians see orange - everywhere," by Yana Sedova, The Ukrainian Weekly, November 21, 2004, Vol. LXXII, No. 47.

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