Kyiv Post staff writer Kateryna Grushenko joined protestors in tents and stood outside to get a feeling for why a small group of fellow citizens are demonstrating.
Nov. 22 was my first night on Maidan. I spent the night on Kyiv’s main square with protesters in tents and stood outside, despite the cold rain, to get a feeling for why a small group of fellow citizens are demonstrating Orange Revolution-style resolve.
Six years earlier, while studying in the United States as a 16-year-old, my only opportunity to get a glance of the Orange Revolution was on television. It was distant and crazy to see such a big event unfolding in my country from afar.
From southern Ukraine, my family backed Viktor Yanukovych in 2004. That made the Orange Revolution not quite a victory for me. Back in 2004, it made no sense to me why thousands of people would spend night after night outside in freezing weather.
On Nov. 22, I found ordinary Ukrainians from all parts of the country taking an honorable and perhaps desperate stand for their survival.
Early hours
The crowd wasn’t huge by midnight. A large protest had fizzled out hours earlier. But somehow, Independence Square buzzed with activity into daylight on Nov. 23.
Two tents and a stage had been set up the night before. But within a few hours, several more tents popped up. Around 2 a.m., supplies such as plastic chairs and foam plastic mats were delivered. Gradually, what started off as a grim tent city became civilized.
Hot tea and food were served, some donated by supporters. Police were always nearby, making the night tense for some expecting a crackdown. But with influential opposition parliamentarians nearby and demonstrators playing guitars, the night suddenly got a bit more cheery.
I buy the goods for my business at the wholesale street market. They don’t give invoices there [that are required by the new tax code]. Even if the tax code comes into force on April 1, I still have packs of summer clothes that I won’t be able to sell off-season.”
– Lubov Mykhaolova, a 47-year old protester
An odd mix
The group spending the night out on Maidan included young protest organizers such as Serhiy Melnychenko, a hard-core activist from Orange Revolution days, as well as group of middle-aged mothers from eastern Ukraine, Yanukovych’s hotbed of support.
The rules and orders in the new tent city were clearly set by young protest organizers such as Melnychenko. But the tent city was much more than activists and lawmakers. Ordinary Ukrainians from east and west had joined to defend their “economic freedom.”
Dinner with mothers
After a late dinner, older women from eastern Ukraine made their way into the warmth of newly set up tents. Lively conversations started. The entrepreneurs shared their hardships, explaining that they were ready to fight “to the end” for a brighter future.
The three female entrepreneurs came from Pavlohrad, a city in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, just for a day, but decided to remain in Kyiv overnight. Having settled on the Styrofoam mats that served as beds and putting purses under their heads, the women were not in the mood to sleep.
Lubov Mykhaolova, 47, sent her husband home to work at the street market while she remained on Maidan to fight for her family. In order to get cash for her business in the street market, she mortgaged her flat. Now the family is at risk of losing their home.
“I buy the goods for my business at the wholesale street market. They don’t give invoices there [that are required by the new tax code]. Even if the tax code comes into force on April 1, I still have packs of summer clothes that I won’t be able to sell off-season,” she said, explaining her motivation for protesting.
Mykhaolova remembered how she and others who lost jobs after the collapse of the Soviet Union survived without government help by setting up small businesses. She argued that political leaders who acquired most of the nation’s richest assets during the 1990s have “no moral right” to cut into the miniscule salaries and incomes of small businesses.
Do you think I can find a job at my age? Or do you think I like to stand on the street market in the snow and in the sun?”
– Tetyana Panchokha, a 52-year old protesting enterpreneur
“I used to work at the military plant as a technologist on metalwork. In the mid-’90s, our salaries were paid with sacks of sugar. In order to get some cash, I went to the street market to sell my sugar. Then I saw that I might be able to make some money there and started selling clothes. Now I have a stand in the shopping mall and my husband has a stand at the street market,” she said.
Mykhaolova’s neighbor, Tetyana Panchokha, 52, interrupted.
“I sold everything and invested into the stalls on the street market for me and my daughter. Now we are on the verge of losing everything, because payments to the Pension Fund are going to be raised from the new year, the tax police will have way too many rights and I won’t have any place to buy goods because I won’t be able to buy from the wholesales markets,” she complained.
“Do you think I can find a job at my age? Or do you think I like to stand on the street market in the snow and in the sun?” she said indignantly, adding she would keep protesting on the square.
The Party of Regions won the local elections in Pavlohrad. But the entrepreneurs said they hadn’t seen such fraudulent elections since Ukraine’s independence.
Many residents of Pavlohrad voted for Yanukovych during the presidential elections, but few still backed the president’s party in the Oct. 31 local elections. And “now people regret” having ever supported Yanukovych, Panchokha said.
Oleksandr’s story
Oleksandr, 42, who didn’t tell his surname because he was afraid of being persecuted by tax police, has a few stalls in a market where he sells carpets. An engineer of food technologies by training, he said, he was ashamed at first to work at the street market. But he got used to it.
Wrapped in a blue-and-white blanket on Maidan at night, Oleksandr stretched legs that he said hurt from standing in the street market in the cold.
After being hassled for bribes by the tax police, he complained that tax collectors would just start asking for bigger bribes if the new tax code is implemented. The code foresees higher fines for tax violations.
It would be just like with the road police. When the fines got bigger, they started asking for more money in bribes.”
– Alexander, a 42-year old protesting enterpreneur.
When asked how long he would stay on Maidan, Oleksandr responded: “As long as it takes to change the tax code.”
Later that night, the rain came down hard and lasted for the next several days. By Nov. 25, the rain stopped and thousands of new protesters had joined. They, as I, were inspired by the few who spent what turned out to be a warm night on Maidan, if one didn’t pay attention to the weather.
Kyiv Post Staff Writer Kateryna Grushenko can be reached at [email protected]
