During the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine, the second largest country in
Europe came close to a violent break-up similar to that in neighboring
Moldova, which witnessed a violent secession of the Transdniestria
region. Numerous elections, including the hotly contested 2004
presidential elections in Ukraine, and surveys of public opinion showed
significant regional divisions in these post-Soviet countries. Western
parts of Ukraine and Moldova, as well as the Muslim Crimean Tatars, were
vocal supporters of independence, nationalist, and pro-Western parties
and politicians. In contrast, Eastern regions, as well as the Orthodox
Turkic-speaking Gagauz, consistently expressed pro-Russian and
pro-Communist political orientations. Which factors--historical
legacies, religion, economy, ethnicity, or political leadership--could
explain these divisions? Why was Ukraine able to avoid a violent
break-up, in contrast to Moldova? This is the first book to offer a
systematic and comparative analysis of the regional political divisions
in post-Soviet Ukraine and Moldova. The study examines voting behavior
and political attitudes in two groups of regions: those which were under
Russian, Ottoman, and Soviet rule; and those which were under
Austro-Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, and Czechoslovak rule until World
War I or World War II. This book attributes the regional political
divisions to the differences in historical experience. This study helps
us to better understand regional cleavages and conflicts, not only in
Ukraine and Moldova, but also in other cleft countries.
