Rukh: From Personality Cult to Personalities

Mr. Chornovil (it was fleetingly announced at the convention) refused to attend. Instead, yet another message was present, warning against "a real threat of breakup" hanging over the party and proclaiming the convention illegitimate. Looking over the audience and presidium, one noticed historically familiar faces - Horyn, Pavlychko, Lavrynovych, Zvarych, Chervony, Movchan, Drach, Yukhnovsky, Zayets, Boiko, Kostenko, and Cherniak - all hallmarks of Rukh, and could not but wonder: what breakup? Which of the fathers and activists made it a point not to attend? Yet some of the delegates openly admitted that only 25-30% of the membership may side with Vyacheslav Chornovil. Volodymyr Stretovych, leader of Christian People's Union and quite an expert on party rifts, warned his comrades-in-arms from the podium: "Whether this convention is legitimate or not will be determined by whoever supports the current leadership. The Ukrainian state is not ruled by the law and nor is it a democracy, despite of what is laid down in Article 1 of the Constitution."

The presidential candidacy issue was not included on the agenda (due to the need to cope with internal party problems, to be sure), yet the subject was broached from the podium and actively discussed in the lobby. In fact, it was only natural, for differences on the Rukh candidate, emerging at the December convention, in many ways caused the current confrontation.

However, the idea about negotiating a single national democratic candidate this May, voiced by Democrat Yavorivsky, was not met with standing ovation. One of the reasons is that other possible Rukh allies - e.g., CUN, CDU, URP - made it clear that they will cooperate only if Rukh determines its stand in supporting a candidate from the nationalist opposition, "because an opposition candidate is the only one with a real chance to win the 1999 campaign," declared URP's Oleksandr Shandriuk from the podium.

The report read by Yuri Kostenko, leader of the Rukh faction in Parliament, was apparently the result of serious consideration: "What is the Rukh faction's strategy in Verkhovna Rada? We all understand the Leftist strategy: so-called social populism; that of the Agrarians boils down to preserving the collective and state farm system; even the corporate groups take a more or less clear stand: grab whatever others have left. And no one can understand what the Rukh faction is actually after, except that we constantly declare our adherence to a national independent and sovereign state. But what is the gist of this state-building strategy? What is it all about? No one will answer this one, not even faction members." Yet some of the principal points raised by the new party leader caused raised eyebrows: "The time of running round the corridors of power, begging for secondary posts, is over. From the policy of servicing the rich and the famous, masked under slogans of constructive opposition, we must proceed to a policy of equal partnership. From now on all our relationships with those in power will be based on the political, economic, and cadre interests of the party."

By way of summary, Rukh made a sharp yet fruitful (in terms of organization) attempt to refresh and reform itself. Will it be able to change from a party adjusted to a single personality into one of personalities? This remains to be seen. The extraordinary convention looked promising, which is a lot but does not solve the problem. Be it as it may, an event took place whose importance is greater than just another page in the annals of a political party. In fact, Rukh adherents do not seem oblivious to their outstanding role in the history of independent Ukraine. Leonid Kravchuk also attended and was greeted in a manner befitting the first President. It caused reminiscences voiced by Mr. Cherniak (and adequately responded by the audience) who said. "I remember when in 1991 we were doing the living chain he worked at the Communist Central Committee. He put on a blazer and quietly drove over to see how many Rukh members would turn up. He drove and drove and there was no end to Rukh people. I think it was then that the head of the CC propaganda directorate driving over for a look-see turned and drove away as the future President of Ukraine. I mean this is how Rukh can influence history and individual destinies. This is the Gospel truth, and we must be fully aware of our lofty mission."

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