Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 1 December 1991. Leonid Kravchuk, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and de facto incumbent head of state, won with 61.6% of the vote, defeating five candidates from the pro-independence national democratic opposition Democratic Bloc. Kravchuk, a national communist, linked his campaign to the concurrent independence referendum, which was supported by 90% of voters.
Communist hardliners, previously dominant in Ukraine's politics, were weakened after Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power and the Chornobyl disaster. From 1989 to 1991, the pro-independence People's Movement of Ukraine (abbreviated Rukh) emerged, consolidating Ukraine's Soviet dissidents behind a united political force. The Communist Party of Ukraine, meanwhile, was divided between national communists (led by Kravchuk) and hardliners. Independence was the main issue during the election, and all candidates supported Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union following the 1991 coup attempt.
During the election, the opposition was divided, as supporters of ex-political prisoner Levko Lukianenko rejected dissident leader Viacheslav Chornovil as Rukh's candidate. Kravchuk, the sole leftist candidate, utilised state media to his advantage, and was accused by the opposition of receiving disproportionate press coverage. He was further bolstered by his effective incumbency and an informal coalition of nomenklatura elites, collective farm bosses and ethnic minorities. Kravchuk's main opponent, Chornovil, campaigned on privatisation and a federal system of government. The election was largely free and fair, and Kravchuk won in all regions of the country besides the western Galicia.
Background
The Communist Party's rule over Ukraine, dominated by hardline leader Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, began to weaken following Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power in 1985 and the Chornobyl disaster a year later. Such factors strengthened Ukraine's Soviet dissidents, and by 1988 the Ukrainian Helsinki Union (Ukrainian: Українська Гельсінська спілка, romanised: Ukrainska Helsinksa spilka, abbreviated UHS) had come into existence as an informal political party uniting a variety of dissident groups. The formation of the UHS was opposed by Shcherbytsky, who accused members of the party of engaging in anti-Soviet agitation. From 1989, protest movements increasingly gained strength, primarily focusing on environmentalism and preservation of the Ukrainian language and culture against Russification. The People's Movement of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Народний Рух України, romanised: Narodnyi Rukh Ukrainy, commonly known simply as Rukh) was formed in February of that year by a group of intellectuals, and successfully consolidated the dissident movement behind a singular organisation. Student protests on Kyiv's October Revolution Square (now Maidan Nezalezhnosti), later known as the Revolution on Granite, further encouraged opposition to the Communist Party and support for Ukraine's independence.
Shcherbytsky retired from office in autumn 1989 and was replaced by Vladimir Ivashko, who left office six months later to become an adviser to Gorbachev. As a result, the positions of First Secretary and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet were split between conservative hardliner Stanislav Hurenko and Leonid Kravchuk, a national communist. Shcherbytsky's fall from power resulted in the dissidents increasingly embracing Ukrainian independence, which, as a result of Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and increased powers for the republics, was eventually embraced by the national communists in 1991. The August 1991 Soviet coup attempt and its failure resulted in an effective collapse of support for retaining the Soviet Union among even conservative communists, who increasingly saw independence as an inevitability and supporting it as necessary to retain political power.
The Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic passed a resolution in June 1991 establishing the office of President of Ukraine. On 5 July a law was passed providing for elections to the office on 1 December. While the campaign formally began on 5 July with the establishment of regulations around campaign advertisements, it effectively did not start until September 1991, after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine following the failure of the coup attempt.
Campaign
The primary issue during the election was Ukrainian independence. All candidates adopted pro-independence programmes in a reflection of popular support for Rukh and its two affiliates, the Democratic Party of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Republican Party. In an interview, Chornovil noted Kravchuk's embrace of Rukh policies, saying that the difference between their programmes was "Nothing[,] except that my programme is thirty years old, and Kravchuk's three weeks old". Besides independence, the other issues debated by the candidates were whether federalism should be adopted, as well as the pace of market reforms. Most candidates favoured the adoption of a federal system consisting of multiple 'lands' (Ukrainian: землі, romanised: zemli); Kravchuk, on the contrary, favoured maintenance of a centralised state with 12 self-governing economic regions. Political scientist Peter Potichnyj argues that the election was "for all candidates a single issue campaign" focused on affirming the referendum, benefiting Kravchuk.
Two of the candidates contesting the election (Viacheslav Chornovil and Levko Lukianenko) had been political prisoners, and all five besides Kravchuk were associated with the national-democratic Democratic Bloc faction. In contrast to Kravchuk, none of the opposition candidates possessed name recognition or Kravchuk's organisation; Political scientist Taras Kuzio notes that each candidate sought to act as a representative of the Democratic Bloc, but that the uncoordinated decision by all five candidates to launch their own campaigns was "collectively disastrous".
In contrast to Kravchuk, who consolidated the left behind his candidacy, the opposition was marked by infighting over the selection of a candidate. Chornovil emerged as Kravchuk's main opponent, and was endorsed by the Rukh. The Grand Council of Rukh initially, upon the agreement of Chornovil and Lukianenko, held a vote in September to determine who the organisation's candidate would be in the election, with all other candidates dropping out. Three candidates participated in the election: Chornovil, Lukianenko and academic Ihor Yukhnovskyi. After Chornovil was voted as Rukh's candidate, head of the Rukh secretariat Mykhailo Horyn (a supporter of Lukianenko) rejected the decision of the Grand Council. The Grand Council issued a directive permitting local branches to endorse any opposition candidate on 1 September; as a result, the organisation was thrown into further chaos. Both Chornovil and Lukianenko received support from the Crimean Tatar community, with leader Mustafa Dzhemilev saying that "Rukh supports the Tatars and we do not want border changes".
Kravchuk
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Leonid Kravchuk was the sole left-wing candidate in the election. He was supported by the Socialist Party of Ukraine (the legal successor to the Communist Party), as well as the Donetsk Oblast branch of Rukh. Minister of Agriculture Oleksandr Tkachenko, initially the seventh candidate on the ballot, dropped out and endorsed Kravchuk's campaign.
Kravchuk's campaign lacked a singular policy programme, instead issuing multiple, often differing statements. He most frequently focused on a slogan of five 'D's: state, democracy, prosperity, spirituality and trust. These points represented the supremacy of human rights in the state, a "socially-oriented economy", continuing Ukrainian cultural development and improving public trust. Kravchuk's campaign was broadly conservative.
Kravchuk received support from state media, including television and radio services and newspapers. Les Tanyuk, a member of Chornovil's campaign staff, alleged that 62% of all television and radio airtime went to Kravchuk and Tkachenko. Paper was also supplied to pro-government newspapers to benefit Kravchuk's campaign; the independent Evening Kyiv, by contrast, was printed in a large double-page broadsheet size. Kravchuk's usage of mass media appealed most to the less-educated; he was additionally supported by kolkhoz chairmen, who maintained political control over rural Ukraine, the nomenklatura, state-backed trade unions and non-ethnic Ukrainians.
Kravchuk's campaign was benefited by his de facto incumbency (demonstrated by his frequent meetings with international leaders) and name recognition, which enabled voters to see him as symbolic of stability in the otherwise-chaotic environment of the Soviet Union's dissolution. He did not significantly engage in the election or discuss other issues besides Ukrainian independence, instead committing most of his energy to the referendum. According to Kuzio, Kravchuk's campaign for the presidency sought to make itself "indistinguishable" from the independence referendum and coopt the national democrats' messaging in order to stifle the opposition campaigns.
Chornovil
Former political prisoner, chairman of the Lviv Oblast Council and People's Deputy Viacheslav Chornovil was Kravchuk's primary opponent in the election. He was formally supported by Rukh and used the organisation's resources both to support his candidacy and the referendum, travelling throughout Ukraine to advocate for an independent and democratic Ukraine. Chornovil's campaign was boosted in western Galicia (particularly Lviv Oblast) by a favourite son effect due to his chairmanship of the Lviv Oblast Council. He further polled as defeating Kravchuk in Rivne, Volyn and Khmelnytskyi oblasts. In the final results, however, Chornovil was defeated by Kravchuk in all three regions.
Chornovil's campaign largely focused on securing independence and undertaking major socioeconomic reforms, including privatisation of state assets. Chornovil described his programme as largely identical to that of Kravchuk, saying that while he had formulated his political views over the past thirty years, Kravchuk had only recently begun to embrace the same attitudes. Other positions included environmental protections, strengthening the power of trade unions, establishment of national personal autonomy for ethnic minorities and Ukrainian membership in both post-Soviet and European international organisations (including a hypothesised pan-European mutual defence pact). He advocated for the federalisation of Ukraine into ten lands corresponding to Galicia and the historic governorates of the Ukrainian People's Republic, with Crimea being either an independent state or an autonomous region.
In contrast to Kravchuk's statesmanlike demeanour, Chornovil's behaviour was recognised by the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe as "emotional and sometimes impulsive", something that had enabled his success as a dissident leader but appeared to some voters as unpresidential. Chornovil's statements, such as those promising economic stability within half a year of his election, were dismissed by Kravchuk's campaign as impossible, and his foreign policy views drew the ire of voters who favoured maintaining close ties with Russia. Speaking to former Radio Free Europe director George Urban, Chornovil argued that he could have won with an additional six months of campaigning. Prior to the election, Chornovil expressed hope for a second round of voting in which he would be able to defeat Kravchuk.
Lukianenko
In contrast to other opposition candidates, People's Deputy and ex-political prisoner Levko Lukianenko ran a populist campaign. He was supported by the Ukrainian Republican Party, being one of only two candidates (alongside Hrynyov) fielded by a party. Some Rukh-supporting members of the nomenklatura, such as Ivan Drach, and the secretariat of Rukh (headed by URP member Mykhailo Horyn) supported Lukianenko's candidacy. Lukianenko's programme argued that Ukraine could become a "developed European state" within five years through strengthening environmental protections, improving human rights through increased integration with international organisations and increased funding for education.
Mykola Kulchynskyi, a dissident and People's Deputy who supported Chornovil, accused Lukianenko of refusing to drop out in order to benefit Kravchuk. Lukianenko was known among the intelligentsia and in urban areas but otherwise lacked name recognition, and his campaign was hampered by organisational difficulties. Much like Chornovil (but to a greater extent), Lukianenko's campaign was also hampered by his known anti-Russian views, with voters feeling that Russian opposition to Ukrainian independence would lead to the annexation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Lukianenko was endorsed by Prosvita and the Union of Ukrainian Students.
Other candidates
Three other candidates contested the election: People's Deputy and academic Ihor Yukhnovskyi, People's Deputy Volodymyr Hrynyov and businessman Leopold Taburyanskyi. All three were supporters of the democratic opposition. The Party of Democratic Revival of Ukraine had two candidates (Yukhnovskyi and Hrynyov), being the only other party besides the Republican Party to nominate a candidate.