In its halcyon days it was Ukraine's mightiest movement, able to call a million pro-independence demonstrators into the streets and to marshal 7.5 million votes for its leader in the 1991 presidential election.
But these are not anyone's halcyon days, and the moderately nationalist Rukh party is a mere shadow of its former self. Membership had been on the decline before rebounding in recent years. Many of the Rukh's original founders have split off to found their own parties. And, to add insult to injury, a new poll released this week shows Rukh not only badly trailing Communists but overtaken for second place by the heretofore little-known Green Party in the stretch run to the March 29 parliamentary election.
What has happened to all those demonstrators of yesteryear? 'Rukh had two different periods,' acknowledged party leader Vyacheslav Chornovil in an interview. 'First there was Rukh as a national front from 1989 until 1992, and then there is the second period with Rukh as a political party.' Wildly successful in its first phase, Rukh has struggled to adapt to a new role, its nationalist thunder stolen by the ex-communists in power while the party failed to respond to the bread-and-butter worries voiced by voters. 'We're finding it difficult to make that transition,' said Roman Zwarycz, a Rukh strategist who heads the Center for Democratic Reform think tank.
'It's time for Rukh to stop being a party of poets and start being a party of pragmatic, hard-hitting politicians.'
There are a few signs that this is happening. The party's 26-strong faction in Parliament was instrumental in pushing through the new election law that set aside half of the 450 seats in the next legislature for candidates selected from national party tickets.
That is widely expected to boost the number of Communist deputies, but is also expected to help Rukh, one of the few among the 30 parties running in this election with plenty of name recognition.
'There are many political parties … but they exist only nominally,' said Chornovil. 'The alternatives are the Communists or Rukh.'
The party hopes the upcoming election will more than double its number of seats in the Rada. It has been trying to expand beyond its traditional base of support in western Ukraine and Kyiv to eastern regions such as Cherkasy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad.
'If we can get 60 to 70 seats we will be a very serious faction in the Rada,' said Vyacheslav Koval, Rukh's campaign manager. 'We will not only be able to influence Parliament itself, but we can also put forth legislation.' That might help soften the perception in some quarters that Rukh has turned into a vehicle for promoting Chornovil. Campaign billboards prominently displaying Chornovil's signature go down badly in sophisticated Lviv where Rukh's local organization has distanced itself from its national leader, and where Chornovil's popularity has hit an all-time low.
It did not help matters that Chornovil recently celebrated his 60th birthday by accepting a medal recognizing his contributions in the fight for Ukrainian independence from President Leonid Kuchma.
'I would have taken that award from the devil. So, it was fine for me to take it rightfully from President Kuchma,' said the former political prisoner.
Such answers won't stop criticism that Rukh has gotten too cozy with the country's rulers.
Two members of the government, Foreign Minister Hennady Udovenko and Environment Minister Yury Kostenko, are among the 10 top candidates on Rukh's national ticket in this election. And Rukh's faction in the Rada has backed economic reforms advocated by the government while opposing constitutional amendments that would have trimmed the powers of the presidency.
'Rukh has moved away from any kind of program,' said Serhy Odarych, director of the Ukrainska Perspektyva think tank. 'I don't see them having any political platform besides a policy that supports Kuchma.'
Chornovil disputes that.
'If your not in power, you're an opposition party,' he said.
Rukh does, in fact, have a detailed platform that promises to combat poverty, promote a secure law-based state, restructure the economy and restore public order. But for many of the country's Russian-speakers it remains associated with an unpopular drive to force Ukrainian-language education on their children and with preoccupation with nationalist symbols at the expense of practical ideas for rescuing the moribund economy. At least two other parties, including one backed by Odarych, are running in this election on the same reform platform as Rukh, but without any bows to Ukrainian nationalism.
'We are trying to change an image that was forced on us,' said Chornovil. 'Our opponents try to make us out as only a cultural and nationalistic party. We are interested in that, but we are not less interested in economic and political problems in Ukraine.'
Zwarycz said Rukh is going through 'labor pains' as it transforms itself from a popular pro-independence movement into a political party that can effectively respond to issues of the day.
'You'll be seeing a lot of soul-searching in Rukh after elections,' he said. 'We've lost a lot of potential support we could have had in 1998. We could have taken 20 to 25 percent but now we'll have 11 to 12 percent [of the vote].' Rukh has tried hard to learn professional politics on the fly. It has raised Hr 1.5 million from its 60,000 members and what it claims is a million-strong support base to pour into this election campaign.
'This is probably the first time we are taking the elections seriously with media and financing,' said Koval. But every time Rukh begins to look like the Western parties it is trying to emulate, something happens to remind people of its fractious, amateurish past.
Last month it was the expulsion of two prominent party members, Kievskie Vedomosti newspaper editor Viktor Chaika and (now jailed) financier Mykhaylo Brodsky for 'violating Rukh's election discipline.'
Brodsky and Chaika have claimed they were thrown out because they refused to promote Rukh in Kievskie Vedomosti. Chornovil said it was a matter of blind ambition. 'They came to Rukh to build up their careers and make money,' said the party leader.
'Kicking out two people was not a good idea on the eve of an election,' said Zwarycz. 'But Chornovil and people who support him deserve the benefit of the doubt.' Inevitably, talk of Rukh turns to talk of Chornovil. 'He's been maintaining the policy of personal rule for several years,' said Odarych. To succeed, 'Rukh needs to change its leader.'
Chornovil said claims that Rukh is in the throes of a personality cult are false. 'All parties have a leader,' he said. 'But the Rukh party is a team. … Any decision I make comes after long discussions with the people.'
