DONETSK – ‘Kuchma is for Donbas; Donbas is for Kuchma!’ A huge slogan, written in Russian and attached to tram wires welcomes everyone driving into Donetsk, the capital of the Donbas coal-mining area and Ukraine’s most populous region.
‘Women of Donbas are for Kuchma,’ reads an advertisement on a passing trolley bus.
‘Every vote for Kuchma is a contribution to Ukraine’s development,’ proclaims a banner hanging just 100 meters away.
‘Who gave them the right to speak for all of Donbas?’ snarls taxi driver Vitaly as he notices another slogan declaring ‘Youth of Donbas for Kuchma.’
The days when Soviet leaders were made into cult figures larger than life live on in Donetsk. Long-gone Soviet leaders, masters of propaganda, would have taken their hats off to President Leonid Kuchma, who has launched a massive campaign in this eastern coal-mining ciyt to win re-election.
Kuchma needs to be aggressive in Donetsk because this region has a reputation as a Communist stronghold, where nostalgia for the Soviet past has yet to abate even eight years after Ukraine gained independence.
With a population of 8 million, Donbas is not a region a presidential candidate can afford to ignore. And Kuchma isn’t.
All of Donetsk seems blanketed with pro-Kuchma signs, banners, slogans and posters. Locals say there are more Kuchma images in Donetsk these days than there were of Vladimir Lenin during Soviet times.
Hotels, kiosks, trolley buses and taxis – all call on the voters to choose Kuchma from among 13 candidates registered for the Oct. 31 vote.
A poster with Kuchma inviting people to buy Ukrainian-made goods has recently appeared in nearly every shop window in downtown Donetsk.
Kuchma’s campaigners have even gone so far as to decorate stores selling imported goods with the ‘buy Ukrainian-made’ posters.
One example was Swiss Watches, an expensive shop on Donetsk’s central Artyoma street, which sells Dupont, Tissot and Bucherer watches. Potential buyers are greeted with a pro-Kuchma poster.
A saleswoman at another foreign-goods shop that sells upscale Yves Rocher cosmetics said it was not the management’s initiative to put the poster in the shop window.
‘The municipal trade department insists that we do this,’ she said, explaining that the shop’s owners had no other choice but to comply because they fully depend on the trade department for retaining their license.
‘Our French partners don’t understand why we have to hang Kuchma’s poster in the shop,’ the saleswoman said. ‘But we told them we are better off with the poster up.’
Gianni Versace, a boutique selling clothes by the famous designer, also invites Ukrainians to buy Ukrainian.
Donetsk locals credit regional governor Viktor Yanoukovich for conducting the gigantic pro-Kuchma campaign in the area. Unlike Russia, where regional governors are popularly elected, regional governors in Ukraine are appointed by the president and subordinated directly to him.
‘They know that if there is another president, there will be another governor,’ said Donetsk resident Maksim Sinelnik.
But Volodymyr Husak, who heads Kuchma’s electoral headquarters in Donetsk, said his team does not have to be involved so heavily in the campaign as shopkeepers are in fact volunteering to promote Kuchma.
‘A shop owner knows that if [Communist Party candidate Petro] Symonenko wins tomorrow, he will no longer be selling Swiss watches,’ he said.
The upcoming election is heavy on the minds of Donetsk residents these days. Local media have set aside their regular reports about coal workers dying on the job in the region’s aging mines and focused all their energies on the presidential race.
Husak is disappointed by the way the media is portraying the candidates. In one case, just minutes after Husak appeared on local television in a pro-Kuchma political commercial, his two major opponents in the race went on the air one after another to slam the incumbent.
‘They better say who they are,’ Husak exclaimed. ‘Why are they pouring dirt on Kuchma? They’ve had part of the pie themselves.’
Husak said that the tactic of his camp is not to sling mud but to appear squeaky clean. Therefore, his team tries to lure media to charity events where the incumbent can be photographed as the benevolent benefactor.
Recently, Kuchma’s Donetsk headquarters sponsored a local weightlifter who couldn’t afford to take part in a competition in the Czech Republic.
In another example, Husak’s team donated a car to a disabled World War II veteran who had been asking for the vehicle from local authorities for years.
However, Husak refused to disclose how much money his team has to pay for such events.
‘We have no budget,’ he said. ‘It’s all donations from local businesses.’
The donations must have been generous. Kuchma’s headquarters is located in a freshly renovated Western-style office, equipped with new fax machines, phones and computers.
But despite Kuchma’s impressive campaign in the region, the presidential race in Donbas is far from over. Challenging Kuchma are the Communists, who garnered 35 percent and 45 percent of the vote in the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions, respectively, during the 1998 parliamentary elections. That is almost twice as much support as the communists averaged nationwide.
The Communist Party may not be as well financed as Kuchma in the Donbas. But what the Communists have is the faith of the area’s destitute miners and struggling metallurgical industry workers who remember the Soviet era as a time of prosperity.
Today, millions of Donbas workers go without pay for months. Many have lost their jobs as inefficient mines and industrial plants were forced to close.
Traffic is conspicuously light on Donbas roads. And many multi-story buildings stand empty, abandoned by those who left the region in search of a better life
‘There are no jobs. Donbas is dying off,’ said Dmytro Kornilov, a reporter with local newspaper Donetsky Kryazh.
Public opinion surveys show that about 80 percent of the region’s voters will cast ballots on Oct.31. That means that millions among Donbas’ impoverished population would throw their protest votes behind Symonenko, the Communist leader.
Yuri Polyakov, editor of the Communist party’s local newspaper, Kommunist Donbassa, is confident that Communists will manage to retain the lead in the region despite Kuchma’s advertising blitz.
Polyakov’s optimism remains high even as he works in a shoddy unheated office where employees work in their coats to stay warm. Still, Polyakov acknowledges that the Communist victory may not be as sweeping as some had hoped. Authorities are doing everything to obstruct the Communists, such as instructing employees with state companies to vote for Kuchma.
‘If it weren’t for this pressure, Kuchma wouldn’t get even 5-10 percent of the vote here,’ he said.
Although opinions differ as to how many votes Symonenko will actually get, local observers say Kuchma is likely to perform strongly in Donbas. Some people are annoyed by the lopsided propaganda in the city. But many have accepted Kuchma, saying they see no better alternative.
Overall, a visit to Donetsk arouses mixed feelings. Foreign retailers, like Benetton and Morgan, have recently opened shops on Artyoma street, touted as the city’s revitalized commercial avenue. Donetsk now boasts two McDonald’s restaurants and its local imitator, Donetsk Burger.
But not much has changed in Donetsk beyond Artyoma over the past decade.
Parallel to Artyoma runs a street called The 50th Anniversary of the Soviet Union, which leads to the city’s main square still named after Lenin.
On weekends, local youngsters flock to the square to listen to Russian and Ukrainian pop singers, who are brought to town to voice their support for Kuchma.
