Ukraine’s Orange Revolution: Kuchma’s Failed Authoritarianism

While most accounts of the orange revolution have focused on the truly remarkable display of mass protest, there is another side to the orange revolution that has received much less attention. The fall of competitive authoritarian rule under Kuchma was first the product of severe weaknesses in the regime and the President’s failure to keep his own allies in line. The vast majority of the opposition had been in the President’s camp just a few years before the dramatic events of late 2004. Fragmentation at the top in turn led to the breakdown of authoritarian state institutions and the eventual collapse of Kuchma’s rule.