During the Orange Revolution in Ukraine the second largest country in Europe came close to a
violent break-up similar to that in neighboring Moldova which witnessed a violent secession of
the Transdniestria region. Numerous elections including the hotly contested 2004 presidential
elections in Ukraine and surveys of public opinion showed significant regional divisions in
these post-Soviet countries. Western parts of Ukraine and Moldova as well as the Muslim
Crimean Tatars were vocal supporters of independence nationalist and pro-Western parties and
politicians. In contrast Eastern regions as well as the Orthodox Turkic-speaking Gagauz
consistentlyexpressed pro-Russian and pro-Communist political orientations. Which factors
historical legacies religion economy ethnicity or political leader-ship could explain these
divisions? Why was Ukraine able to avoid a violent break-up in contrast to Moldova? This is
the first book to offer a systematic and comparative analysis of the regional political
divisions in post-Soviet Ukraine and Moldova. The study examines voting behavior and political
attitudes in two groups of regions: those which were under Russian Ottoman and Soviet rule
and those which were under Austro-Hungarian Polish Romanian and Czechoslovak rule until
World War I or World War II. This book attributes the regional political divisions to the
differences in historical experience. This study helps us to better understand regional
cleavages and conflicts not only in Ukraine and Moldova but also in other cleft countries.
