A DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF ORANGE REVOLUTIONARIES

Here's some interesting information on the demographics of who participated in the Orange Revolution---NEW DATA CREATES DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF ORANGE REVOLUTIONARIES, VOTERS - Eurasia Daily Monitor.

It ends:

The Orange Revolution succeeded because western Ukraine provided participants while eastern Ukrainians remained passive. Some 45% of the Orange Revolution protestors were from western Ukraine, especially from the three Galician oblasts: Ivano-Frankivsk (69%), Lviv (46%), and Ternopil oblast (35%).

A striking 35% of western Ukrainians took part in the Orange Revolution, and 23% of west-central Ukrainians. Besides western Ukrainians, more than one-third of the residents of Kyiv participated, a figure close to that of Galicia. These figures were far lower in eastern (15%), east-central (9%), and southern Ukraine (8%) respectively.

These studies by Democratic Initiatives and IFES point to a close interconnection between national identity and civil society in Ukraine, with eastern Ukraine dominated by passivity and a "managed" civil society. The 2004 election also showed that violence came from eastern, not western, Ukrainians.

The study also states that those in the East believed that those on Maidan were paid to go. This isn't anything new. But the reason for this belief is interesting: They, in the East were paid to go to rallies so those on Maidan had to be paid too. What I see and understand is what everybody else see and understands. In cultural studies this is called self reference criteria and it is the main thing I deal with when teaching people--mostly Americans-- about cultural differences.