Ivan Krastev: Footnote

The Orange Revolution has faded away in Ukraine. Democracy survived, but it is a democracy without much hope. You want to get a feeling what is going on in the country and why anger and apathy are shaping Ukraine’s public life? Then stop reading the semi-intelligent op-eds and think tanks’ briefs that flooded Western media last week and focus on the story of Vladimir Boyko published in The Wall Street Journal.

Vladimir Boyko is a young, smart, and entrepreneurial student. In 2004, he joined the thousands of young Ukrainians in what we used to call “civil society.” Dressed in orange and full of hope, he was on the streets and was a likely source for a Wall Street Journal journalist writing an article about Ukraine’s future. In fact, he was Ukraine’s future. He is on the streets again, but this time he is not an idealistic young man in search of change, or an NGO activist. He is on the street because he is in the business of crowd renting. His company, Easy Work, has assembled a database of several thousand students. It can mobilize them on a day’s notice to turn up at demonstrations anywhere in Kiev, stand for hours, and cheer and jeer on cue. Boyko’s crowd does not have political preferences. His employees are ready to turn up at any rally they are paid to attend. Easy Work pays $4 an hour and is proud of always paying on time. In The Wall Street Journal’s beautiful formulation, Boyko’s company represents a “mercenary form of activism.” Many of the people whom you saw shouting and jeering in last week’s TV reports from Ukraine’s elections rallies were most likely Boyko’s employees.

So, Easy Work is the new post-Orange face of Ukrainian politics. It is the new version of a social contract. Mercenary activism has replaced the civic activism of 2004.

Boyko’s crowd is symptomatic not because it had any impact on elections results but because it is the most dramatic manifestation of the mixture of apathy, anger, and cynicism that is eroding Ukraine’s public life. It is symptomatic for the democracy of mistrust emerging in many places in Eastern Europe. What is at the heart of these regimes is that they are democracies on paper, a mess in reality, and cynical at their heart. They are democracies without choices and bar any hope for real change. Societies are angry and radical but de-politicized at the same time. People view elections as a chance to publicly execute those in power. There is no “against everybody” ballot but in fact most citizens vote against everybody. Cynics are perceived as the most trustworthy people because they are not in the business of promising and betraying your promises after that. In short, the only way to benefit from politics is to register in the Easy Work database.

Corrupt politicians are not a new phenomenon in places like Ukraine. The trend of turning democratic politics into a competition in outspending the opponent is not just a Ukrainian problem. However, Boyko’s Easy Work gives us a glimpse into something new. Easy Work’s crowd is not composed of frightened workers brought to the squares by company busses and bolstered by the anxiety that if their oligarch loses the elections they most probably will lose their jobs. Unlike the feudal crowds usually delivered by the East Ukrainian oligarchs, the Easy Work crowd is composed of free individuals who have autonomously decided to earn some money by faking political activism. They cannot be disillusioned this time. They do not dream of a strong leader, and they do not dream of democracy, either. When it comes to politics, they do not dream at all. Today it is hard to imagine that these young people will ever again take to the streets for free.