DPC POLICY NOTE 06: The Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity: Similarities and Differences.
DPC POLICY NOTE 06: The Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity: Similarities and Differences.

Author(s): Iryna Chupryna
Subject(s): Government/Political systems, Electoral systems, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: DPC Democratization Policy Council e.V.
Keywords: Orange Revolution; Kyiv; protests; police forces; Revolution of Dignity; Ukraine;
Summary/Abstract: “Compared with today's events in Kyiv, the Orange Revolution seems a children's party” – a foreign media outlet wrote when violent clashes on Hrushevskoho Street in Kyiv erupted between protesters and police and when the first blood was shed. And it's hard to disagree ... While the Orange Revolution of 2004 was a kind of joyful “festival of democracy” with songs, dances, humor, and blossoming of folk art, the "Revolution of Dignity" of 2013-2014, as it is now called, included tragic events of the kind that had never happened in the independent Ukraine. These two impressive popular revolutions in Ukraine do have a number of elements in common. They both started on November 21 (nine years apart), on the day of the Archangel Michael, the official patron saint of Kyiv and the head of the “heavenly army.” People often spoke about the mystical underpinnings of the protests, asserting that heavenly forces led by the Archangel Michael inspired people to fight against the regime. It is not surprising that the more than one hundred activists killed on the Maidan were promptly dubbed the “Heavenly Hundred.”

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