Hromada All-Ukrainian Association

Hromada All-Ukrainian Association (Всеукраїнське об’єднання «Громада»; Vseukrainske obiednannia ‘Hromada’). A minor political party created in December 1993 by elements of the Nova Ukraina caucus (itself formed out of the Democratic Platform of the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine) and like-minded businessmen, and registered on 22 March 1994. Espousing a Christian-democratic ethic, it was in fact a pro-business party with the avowed aim of ending the economic crisis, developing an effective national economy, promoting civilized societal relations, and improving the wellbeing of citizens. It has been termed a ‘front party,’ being basically a personal political vehicle for the Dnipropetrovsk-based clan led by Pavlo Lazarenko and Yuliia Tymoshenko. Its program would rescue Ukraine by increasing government support for business development, reducing the tax burden, and developing export potential. It would also make privatization into a means of economic growth rather than theft, assure adequate food and enhance the country’s agricultural exports, satisfy fuel and energy needs, create an efficient public service, fight crime, and stop the deterioration of the armed forces. The party’s first leader, economist and former prime ministerial adviser Oleksandr Turchynov, was replaced by ex-Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko on 27 September 1997. It was under Lazarenko’s leadership that the party flourished and acquired its anti-presidential oppositionist stance.

A centrist party, it claimed to embrace a combination of European social-democratic and liberal ideological principles, giving priority to individual rights and freedoms, endorsing a socially oriented economy, and supporting the Ukrainian national idea. Its political aims were the creation of a civil society, integration of Ukraine into the world and European communities, and a swift admission of the country into the Euro-Atlantic institutions. Claiming its intellectual heritage to be drawn from Ivan Franko, Lesia Ukrainka, Mykhailo Drahomanov, and Mykhailo Hrushevsky, the party advocated a ‘parliamentary-presidential’ instead of the then ‘presidential’ republic, and favored a fully proportional electoral system. It opposed as unconstitutional the presidentially-inspired referendum of April 2000. The party saw its appeal in society as being very broad, but mainly aiming at protest voters dissatisfied with the Leonid Kuchma regime yet opposed to a communist restoration.

One of only two political parties to sponsor a full slate of 225 candidates on the party lists for the 1998 elections, its platform was anti-government and highly specific. Its proposed strategy of renewal included: creating a civil society, meeting individuals’ and families’ needs, equalizing all forms of property ownership, halting the decline of industrial production and reducing unemployment, restoring economic growth by the year 2000, and eliminating wage arrears. It guaranteed to raise salaries, restore lost savings, pay wages and pensions on time, and bring privatization under public control. The party promised to cut taxes in half, raise pensions, and allocate billions of hryvnias for rural social development. Like all political parties, it also promised action to curb crime and official corruption. In the 1998 elections to the Supreme Council of Ukraine, Hromada won 4.7 per cent of the party list vote, and gained 7 seats in single-member districts, for a total of 23 seats.

Mirroring the Leonid Kuchma–Pavlo Lazarenko feud, the party took perhaps the strongest anti-government position in the subsequent parliament. Another notable feature was its leaders’ strong base in Dnipropetrovsk, with matching electoral strength.

At the start of the parliamentary session in May 1998, its caucus (fraction) consisted of 39 deputies. By December 1998, thanks to adhesions from ‘independent’ deputies, the Hromada caucus stood at 45. On 4 March 1999, however, following the lifting of Pavlo Lazarenko’s parliamentary immunity and his arrest in the United States of America, the Hromada caucus split and 19 of its then 42 deputies departed to form a new left-of-center grouping under the name Batkivshchyna (Fatherland), led by Yuliia Tymoshenko hitherto no. 2 in Hromada and an ally of Lazarenko. By July 1999, the Hromada rump was down to 17 deputies, while the Batkivshchyna party had 26. The party’s popularity was not helped by its leader’s long-distance interventions in the 1999 presidential election, after which the party had to fight not just for influence, but survival. On 29 February 2000, the Hromada parliamentary caucus was dissolved due to lack of numbers, a result of defections caused by ongoing internal conflicts, although its individual members were able to retain their committee chairmanships by reason of adhering to the parliamentary majority. As of 1 March 2000, party membership was reported as 220,162.

The party did not participate in the 2002 elections. In 2006, it formed part of an electoral alliance called the Lazarenko Bloc together with the Social Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine, all under the leadership of the exiled ex-prime minister. The bloc received only 0.3 per cent of the vote for no seats. The party took part in a national election for the last time in 2012, when it managed to obtain less than one per cent of the vote. With the passage of time, and a disgraced leader in exile, it faded into obscurity having long lost its reason for being.

Bohdan Harasymiw

[This article was written in 2024.]