NID: USSR: SUCCESSION IN THE UKRAINE

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: A 30-Year Legacy
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06826774
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2019
• Publication Date: September 23, 1989

Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826774
USSR: Succession in the Ukraine
Ukrainian party boss Shcherbitskiy, removed from the Politburo in
the major shakeup at this week's Central Committee plenum, almost
certainly will be replaced by a Ukrainian mon sympathetic to reform
and to local nationalist demands.
the Ukrainian Central Committee today will convene to
choose a new first secretary.
Comment: The plenum showed that General Secretary Gorbachev is
intent on pushing political reform while moo: aggressively managing
resurgent nationalism. In the Ukraine, these requirements favor
Second Secretary Vladimir Ivashko and Mos.:ow-based Central
Committee Ideology Department head Aleksandr Kapto, both
Ukrainians.
Ivashko is a product of the Ukrainian party apparatus, and the local
party organization probably would be most comfortable with him. He
is a protege of Shcherbitskiy but recently has been distancing himself
from the hardline policies of his boss. Ivashko's desire to portray
himself as a moderate reformer was apparent in a recent interview in
which he supported contested elections and faster economic reform.
Moscow may see him as someone who could finally open the door for
change in the Ukraine, but he lacks crcdibiliti with nationalists and
radical reformers.
If Gorbachev wants to shake up the local party organization and
accelerate reform, he probably will choose Kapto. Away from the
Ukrainian party for three years. Kapto probably is more in tune with
Moscow's aims. Untainted by Shcherbitskiy's Russification policies,
he may be in a better position than lvashko to manage the rising tide
of nationalism, negotiate with the popular front, and initiate reforms.
In an interview on the eve of the Central Committee plenum, Kapto
was sympathetic to non-Russian nationalist concerns about Ian ua e
self-determination, and the role of the party in the republics.
Despite the evident credentials of these fronti unners, it would not
be unrealistic for Gorbachev to back a darkhcrse such as Yevgeniy
Kusharcv, head of the pany cadres department for Kharkov city, who
is emerging as a bold voice for reform and is termed "the Kharkov
Yertsin" by some./
ToTh�TS'erret---
rcs 2922/89
September 1989
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3 sq
"-ToirStferet�
Challenges From Nationalist Reformers in the Ukraine
If adopted, a new republic election law promoting direct elections
under the one-man, one-vote principle, drafted by an opposition
coalition of reformers and nationalists, would spell defeat for many in
the party apparatus in the coming republic election.
Shcherbitskiy's fall will make Ukrainian Catholics even more hopeltil
their suppressed Church can be legalized. Activism like last week's
open mass in Lvov attended by 150,000 Ukrainians will accelerate as
Gorbachev's proposed autumn meeting with the Pope in Rome
approaches.
A draft law making Ukrainian the only state language could, if
passed, spark a backlash�like the organized Russian opposition in
Moldavia and Estonia�from the 20 percent of the republic
population who are ethnic Russians.
�"TIRTSOCZEL__
.1 CS 2922/89
23 September 1989
Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826774