LETTER: Ex-Communists back in control

From Mr Taras Kuzio

Sir: Michael Sheridan's rather gloomy "Rusting hulks in the land that Russia forgot" (7 September) places the accent upon the Communist background of most of Ukraine's leadership as a negative factor in its current stage of development. But is this really such an unusual phenomenon in the former Soviet bloc?

The transition process in central Europe and the former Soviet Union (FSU) has shown that "outsiders", such as nationalists and former dissidents, have few possibilities of coming to power or holding on to power in these countries.

During the early euphoria of the disintegration of Communism and the Soviet system some nationalists did come to power (Landsbergis in Lithuania, Gamsakhurdia in Georgia, Elchibey in Azerbaijan)but these were brief interludes disrupted by coups and/or widespread popular disillusionment.

The overriding feature of the former Soviet bloc in central Europe and the FSU is that after this brief flirtation with "outsider" nationalists they have all returned to leaders from within the former Communist system.

These former Communist leaders, often now espousing state building and reformist policies, persist not only in Ukraine (as Mr Sheridan claimed) but in Russia, Lithuania, Moldova, the Transcaucasus, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. As for central Asia, the region is entirely dominated by renamed Communist parties.

Yours faithfully,

Taras Kuzio

Research Fellow

Centre for Russian and East

European Studies

University of Birmingham

Birmingham

8 September