Aspects of the Orange Revolution IV - Foreign Assistance and Civic Action in the 2004 Ukrainian Presidential Elections

The fourth volume of Aspects of the Orange Revolution continues the previous volumes discussion on the impact of foreign actors on Ukrainian politics. It provides both scholarly analyses and first-hand accounts. The collection not only investigates, but also gives voice to, some of those involved in the events of 2004. While most of the volumes contributors have an academic background, some of them report here from the perspective of official election or informal participant observers of the three rounds of the Ukrainian presidential elections.§Part One juxtaposes some contrasting views on how far Russias and the Wests various interests, activities and tools influencing the Orange Revolution were comparable to each other, and adequate given the circumstances. Part Two presents individual reports by a number of international election observers who were following the campaign and voting in various parts of Ukraine in 2004. Part Three presents three additional on-the-ground observations focusing solely on the notorious electoral district No. 100 of Kirovohrad Oblast.§The contributions by Andreas Umland, Iris Kempe, Iryna Solonenko, Vladimir Frolov, Valentin Yakushik, Matthias Brucker, Jake Rudnitsky, Rory Finnin, Adriana Helbig, Paul Terdal, Tatiana Terdal, Peter Wittschorek, Hans-Jörg Schmedes, Adrianna Melnyk, Ingmar Bredies, Oxana Shevel and Volodymyr Bilyk add a number of novel points of view to those presented in the previous volumes. These partly contradictory and emotional texts as well as a number of photographs document the tense atmosphere and confrontational climate within which Ukraines second phase of post-Soviet democratization started in 2004.