The Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution took place in the Ukraine from November 2004 to January 2005. The protests began after reports that the election that took place on November 21, 2004 was rigged in favor of Viktor Yanukovych. The fraudulent elections were considered to be the tipping point for Ukrainians who were waiting for an economic and political transformation to revitalize the country. The outgoing president was Leonid Kuchma and many had turned against him and his policies. He used his administration to support the candidacy of Viktor Yanukovych. The opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko took on the color of orange for his movement, and this would be the reason why the protests that followed the election became known as the Orange Revolution.
On November 22, the first of the massive protests began all across the Ukraine. 500,000 gathered in Kiev’s Independence Square and then later marched to the headquarters of the Ukrainian Parliament carrying orange flags. Many cities began to pass refusals to accept the legitimacy of Viktor Yanukovych as president.
Viktor Yushchenko even went as far as to take his own presidential oath believing that he was the rightful president of the country. Despite the freezing weather protests continued through December and on some days more than one million people walked the streets in protest. It is believed that over 18% of Ukrainians participated in the Orange Revolution.
The end to the Revolution came when the Ukrainian Supreme Court declared that there had been too much electoral fraud in the election and it was impossible to determine the rightful winner. Therefore, they decreed a run-off election would occur on December 26, 2005. The new election was strictly scrutinized and on January 10, 2005 the Election Commission declared that Viktor Yushchenko was the winner. He was inaugurated on January 23 in front of hundreds of thousands of supporters who had brought about a peaceful revolution.