5. Ukraine on the way to freedom and independence. Adoption of the Declaration of state sovereignty of Ukraine.

Reforms initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev in spring 1985 were first controlled by the state party; but with the expansion of publicity (“glasnost”) there remained even less people who could find any harmony in relations between the State and society. Communist ideology lost its authority, the society was quickly politicized. These processes immediately acquired political coloration in Ukraine. There began the actions of protest against closing the schools with education in Ukrainian, against forcing out the national language from the sphere of state management, book-publishing and mass media. In November 1988, the first mass meeting took place in Kyiv which was devoted to the problems of ecology, where V.Shcherbytskyi and other leaders were blamed for concealing information about the after-effects of the Chernobyl catastrophe.In 1989, the political strikes burst out in Donbas, and the People’s Movement of Ukraine appeared in Kyiv. In the spring of 1989, the first free elections (after 1917) were held in the USSR which lead to the appearance of a new center of power in a form of the two-level representative system: the Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR and permanently acting the Supreme Council of the USSR formed at the Congress. Under this new situation, V. Shcherbytskyi was not in power for a very long period of time. The party dictatorship and the entire totalitarian system fell to pieces before long.

In March 1990, elections were held for the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR and local councils.

Election parliamentary and local elections showed that the population of Ukraine tied with them their hopes on 9 change social and political life Republic.

Parliament July 16, 1990 adopted Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine.

Declaration announced that independent Ukraine magician developed on the basis of Ukrainian nation of the inherent right of self-determination.

In It noted that state power in Republic is divided into legislative, executive and judicial.

In Declaration of the important provisions were set to reflect the content of the concept state sovereignty, which is defined as rule and indivisibility of power republic within its territory and independence and equality in external relations.

On Magician in Ukraine provided the rule of the Constitution and laws, stated in the Declaration.

Special value acquired position that the document contained therein principles should be used to conclude a new union contract.

In Declaration was announced Ukraine's right to its share of the wealth, particularly in the Soviet Union and the Monetary Fund gold reserves.

Supposed creating their own banking, financial, customs and tax systems of own budget, implementation of the national currency.

It was proclaimed the right of Ukraine have their own Military Forces, internal troops and state security bodies.

Declaration provided that Ukraine will carry direct relations with other countries will take part in equal international communication.

Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine proclaimed Republican Priority laws of the union and opening so possibility of taking over most legal power Republican powers authorities.

That save the Soviet Union put an end "Parade of sovereignties" central leadership decides to conclude a new union contract.

Proposed project did not recognize the state sovereignty of the republics and, moreover, prohibited they come from the USSR.

In Ukraine wave of protests against its involvement in signing new contract.

1 October 1990 appeal announced Democratic Association of Councils MPs and democratic blocs to parliament and government, which required give up the signing of the proposed central management new union treaty.

It was proposed to the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine the status of constitutional Act to dissolve the Communist Party (KPU) and nationalize its assets.

In those days in Ukraine held massive rallies and demonstrations Peel slogan No – Union treaty " In October 1990 had a prolonged hunger strike students. It was an impressive event, she did not leave indifferent citizens of the republic. It attended by 157 students from 24 cities of Ukraine.

Starving Students nominated to the Supreme Council political requirements, including: new elections to Parliament on the basis multiparty system, the refusal to sign the union contract, in return Ukraine of all its citizens, who were carrying military service outside Republic. Students demanded the nationalization of property and the Communist Party in the territory VLKSM Republic, the government's resignation and others.

17 October 1990 Parliament had to adopt a resolution that recognized prematurity signing a new union contract for approval new Constitution of Ukraine.

Attitude Ukrainian people to the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine was expressed in a referendum held in May 1991

6.The Proclamation of Act of Ukraine’s Independence. Development of the Ukrainian Independent State.

The Act was adopted in the aftermath of the coup attempt on 19 August when conservative Communist leaders of the Soviet Union tried to restore central Communist party control over the USSR.[1] In response (during a tense 11-hour extraordinary session[2]), the Supreme Soviet (parliament) of the Ukrainian SSR in a special Saturday session overwhelmingly approved the Act of Declaration.[1] The Act passed with 321 votes in favor, 2 votes against, and 6 abstentions (out of 360 attendants).[2] The author of the text was Levko Lukyanenko. The Communists (CPU) felt there was no choice other than a decision to secede and, as they expressed it, distance themselves from the events in Moscow, particularly the strong anti-Communist movement in the Russian Parliament.[2] "If we don't vote for independence, it will be a disaster," stated first secretary of the CPU Stanislav Hurenko during the debate.[2]

The same day (24 August), the parliament called for a referendum on support for the Declaration of Independence.[1][2] The proposal for calling the national referendum came jointly from opposition leaders Ihor Yukhnovsky and Dmytro Pavlychko.[2] The Parliament also voted for the creation of a national guard of Ukraine and turned jurisdiction over all the armed forces located on Ukrainian territory over to itself.[2]

Other than a noisy crowd that had gathered at the Parliament building, the streets of Kiev were quiet that day, with few signs of open celebration.[2]

In the days that followed a number of resolutions and decrees were passed: nationalizing all CPU property and handing it over to the Supreme Soviet and local councils; issuing an amnesty for all political prisoners; suspending all CPU activities and freezing CPU assets and bank accounts pending official investigations into possible collaboration with the Moscow coup plotters; setting up a committee of inquiry into official behavior during the coup; and establishing a committee on military matters related to the creation of a Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.[2]

On 26 August 1991 the Permanent Representative of the Ukrainian SSR to the United Nations (the Ukrainian SSR was a founding member of the United Nations[3]) Hennadiy Udovenko informed the office of the Secretary General of the United Nations that his permanent mission to this international assembly would officially be designated as representing Ukraine.[3][4]

On 26 August 1991 the executive committee of Kiev also voted to remove all the monuments of Communist heroes from public places, including the Lenin monument on the central October Revolution Square.[2] The large square would be renamed Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) as would the central Metro station below it, the executive committee decided.[2]

On 28 August 1991 more than 200,000 Lviv and Lviv oblast residents declared their readiness to serve in the national guard.[5]

In the independence referendum on 1 December 1991, the people of Ukraine expressed widespread support for the Act of Declaration of Independence, with more than 90% voting in favor, and 82% of the electorate participating.[1]

Since 1992, the 24th of August is celebrated in Ukraine as Independence Day

3. Dissident movement The dissident movement came into existence in the USSR after the death of Joseph Stalin. It protested against violations of the law by organs of the state an demanded national and human rights and adherence to the constitutions of the USSR and the Union republics. In Ukraine, as in other republics of the USSR where national oppression was keenly felt, the dissident movement represented a struggle against the violation of the republic's rights of sovereignty by the central government and the Communist Party, a resistance to colonization by foreign elements and to the resettlement of Ukrainians outside Ukraine, and a protest against the destruction of cultural monuments, the falsification of the history of Ukraine, and generally against the policies of Russification. For many dissidents, the movement also represented a struggle for political rights.

Dissent was expressed during the period of de-Stalinization in the struggle for freedom of intellectual creativity. Oleksander Dovzhenko, who in 1955 demanded the ‘expansion of the creative boundaries of socialist realism,’ may be considered the movement's instigator. In Ukraine de-Stalinization saw the emergence in the 1960s of young and talented prose writers, poets, and literary critics known as the ‘the Sixtiers’ (see Shistdesiatnyky). They included Lina Kostenko, Vasyl Symonenko, Ivan Drach, Vitalii Korotych, Mykola Vinhranovsky, Valerii Shevchuk, Ivan Dziuba, Yevhen Sverstiuk, Ivan Svitlychny, and later Vasyl Stus, Mykhailo Osadchy, Ihor Kalynets, and Iryna Kalynets. These writers were joined in the creative resurgence of the 1960s by such scholars, publicists, philosophers, and artists as Viacheslav Chornovil, Valentyn Moroz, Alla Horska, Opanas Zalyvakha, and Mykola Lukash. As harbingers of the idea of creative freedom, these individuals became symbols of the Ukrainian national renaissance.

One of the first outward manifestations of the dissident movement in Ukraine took place at the Conference on Culture and Language at Kyiv University in February 1963, where it was demanded that Ukrainian be instituted as an official language of the Ukrainian SSR and that the rights of Ukrainians as a national minority be restored in the RSFSR. The conference became, in fact, a national demonstration of about 1,000 people, challenging the policy of Russification. On 4 September 1965 a protest against arrests in Ukraine was held in the Ukraina cinema in Kyiv. The gathering was addressed by Ivan Dziuba, who in December of that year sent an open letter protesting the repressions to Petro Shelest, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, and to Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR. A petition in defense of arrested individuals was signed in the autumn of 1965 by leading Ukrainian cultural figures, including Mykhailo Stelmakh, Andrii Malyshko, Heorhii Maiboroda, Platon Maiboroda, Oleg Antonov, Serhii Paradzhanov, Lina Kostenko, Ivan Drach,

The movement for the rebirth of Ukrainian culture had in fact begun by 1958–9, with a protest (involving Maksym Rylsky, Mykola Bazhan, and others) against the new education law that promoted the increased Russification of schools in Ukraine.

Workers' strikes and protests belong to the broader manifestations of the Ukrainian dissident movement. In 1963 a workers' strike took place in Kryvyi Rih in protest against increased food prices and food shortages. In Odesa dock workers refused to load butter for export to Cuba. Strikes occurred in 1969 at the hydroelectric station in the village of Berizka; in 1972 in Dnipropetrovsk protests took place against the influx of Russians into the factories; in June 1972 in Dniprodzerzhynsk several thousand people were involved in a bloody confrontation with the police and the armed forces while protesting the harsh conduct of the authorities; and in 1973 a strike took place at the automotive plant in Kyiv. In 1977–8 a group (primarily of Donetsk workers) led by Vladimir Klebanov formed an independent trade union and put forth demands for socioeconomic improvements. In 1977, 25 Donbas workers filed a complaint to the Belgrade conference reviewing the Helsinki Accords about the disregard for workers' rights in the USSR. L. Siry, a Ukrainian worker in Odesa, wrote letters to various prominent figures in the West, appealing for aid to emigrate because of the economic hardships suffered by his family.

One form through which dissent in Ukraine was expressed was samvydav (samizdat) literature. The first known document of Ukrainian samvydav was the ‘Open Letter to the United Nations and the Human Rights Commission of the UN’ from 13 Ukrainian political prisoners in the Mordovian labor camps in 1955.

Dissident activities in Ukraine constantly elicited repressive measures on the part of the regime. The first extensive wave of arrests and trials took place in 1965–6 and involved Ivan Hel, Bohdan Horyn, Mykhailo Horyn, Opanas Zalyvakha, D. Ivashchenko, Sviatoslav Karavansky, Mykhailo Masiutko, Valentyn Moroz, Mykhailo Osadchy, and others. The second wave occurred between January and April 1972, when Viacheslav Chornovil, Yevhen Sverstiuk, Ivan Svitlychny, Nadiia Svitlychna, Ivan Dziuba, Mykhailo Osadchy, Vasyl Stus, Stefaniia Shabatura, Ihor Kalynets, Iryna Kalynets, Oleksander Serhiienko, Nina Strokata, Rev Vasyl Romaniuk, Yurii Shukhevych, and others were arrested. They were tried for ‘anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.’ The verdicts were harsher than those of the 1960s.

At the same time repression was exercised in the form of dismissal from employment, expulsion from school, and eviction from apartments. At Lviv University 23 students were expelled and 27 lecturers were fired.

The political position of the dissident movement was based on the notions of humanism, democracy, and individual and national freedom. The human individual and his/her dignity and right to develop freely regardless of political and ideological convictions, religion, or nationality were central in dissident thought. Most leaders of the Ukrainian dissident movement demanded an independent Ukrainian state. According to some this goal was to be achieved by restructuring the USSR, so as to guarantee genuine self-determination for Union republics; according to others this was possible only through secession from the USSR.

Tactically, the Ukrainian dissident movement generally adhered to legal and constitutional means of struggle. Particularly important were the efforts of leading dissidents to involve the masses in an active defense of national interests (cf ‘Pozytsiï ukraïns'kykh politychnykh viazniv’ [The Positions of Ukrainian Political Prisoners] by Vasyl Romaniuk and Oleksa Tykhy, 1977).