OPINION: 33 Years Ago This Week the Fate of Ukraine and the World Hung in the Balance

What occurred and what was at stake

33 years ago, on Aug. 19, 1991, a group of Soviet hardliners sought to turn back the wheel of history. Seeking to prevent the advancing dissolution of the USSR, they attempted a putsch in Moscow and for several days the fate of the Soviet Union, and understandably also of the then-still Soviet Ukrainian republic, hung in the balance.

As we approach the 33rd anniversary of Ukraine’s reaffirmation of its independence - a shortlived but significant attempt to establish an independent Ukrainian state in 1918-20 was crushed by force - it is important to recall the dramatic event that preceded this historic event. 

The Communist hardliners aimed to blunt the democratization process that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had initiated with his perestroika and glasnost policies. Above all, however, they wanted to preserve the centrally controlled Soviet empire, which claimed to be a federation of "sovereign" republics, and block his plan to preserve this unified state through a new union treaty with the increasingly nationally self-confident non-Russians.

Dismantling oppressive Soviet rule

By this time, Ukraine, where Soviet rule had remained tougher than in other non-Russian republics, had begun to reassert its desire to be free. Following the example of the Baltic republics, in 1989 an alliance of democratic-patriotic forces joined forces in the Rukh movement and began campaigning for independence.

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On July 16, 2020, the Soviet Ukrainian parliament confirmed the republic's state sovereignty and some of its Communist leaders, the so-called “sovereignty communists” led by Leonid Kravchuk, also opposed Gorbachev and sought the greatest possible freedom from Moscow.

But this was anything but easy. The Communists were still in power in Moscow and Kyiv and dominated the Ukrainian parliament.

Yeltsin as a catalyst

In Moscow, the liberal Communist, Boris Yeltsin, broke ranks, adopted a democratic position and in challenging Gorbachev promoted the state sovereignty of the Russian Federation. Unexpectedly, and unwittingly, Yeltsin turned out to be both the Russian ally and catalyst that Ukraine’s pro-independence forces, and its increasingly nationally-minded Communists like Kravchuk, needed at that time.

Asserting sovereignty

In the last months of 1990, Ukraine succeeded in asserting its sovereignty by bypassing Moscow and signing several important agreements and declarations directly with other Soviet republics and neighboring states. In September, October and November, Hungary, Poland and the Russian Federation formally recognized Ukraine's "sovereignty" Ukraine also made a stronger appearance at the United Nations and applied for direct representation in the process of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Another indication of Ukraine's new assertiveness was in January 1991, when the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine publicly condemned the Soviet military action against defiant Lithuania.

Ukraine's initial referendum that set the political tone

When Gorbachev increased the pressure on the non-Russian republics to sign a new "union treaty" by announcing a referendum on the future of the USSR, Kravchuk found an ingenious compromise: the Ukrainian parliament decided that Ukraine would hold its own opinion poll on the same day as the referendum, setting out the conditions under which Ukraine would agree to remain in the Soviet Union.

The three regions of western Ukraine also decided to add a third question asking voters about their attitude towards Ukrainian independence.

In the vote on March 17, 1991, 70.5% of voters (58% of those eligible to vote) were still in favor of maintaining the Union. However, this result was overturned by the more enthusiastic approval (80.2% of voters) of the supplementary proposal, which stipulated that Ukraine should only join a new, liberalized “Union of Sovereigns”

Rejecting Gorbachev's manipulation

In Kyiv, a city that until recently seemed thoroughly Russified, the majority rejected Gorbachev’s proposal, and in western Ukraine over 90% of voters were in favor of independence.

Kravchuk interpreted the result of the Ukrainian referendum as a vote “for the kind of union in which Ukraine would be a sovereign state with full rights, a state that would be master in its own house.”

At the end of June 1991, the Soviet-Ukrainian parliament scuppered Gorbachev's plans by voting to postpone further discussion of the proposed new union treaty until mid-September.

In the meantime, under Kravchuk’s leadership and continued pressure from Rukh, the parliament's work entered a more constructive phase. Measures were taken to reorganize and rationalize the state administration, and a concept for a new Ukrainian constitution was agreed upon.

Although the conservative communist deputies still held a majority in the republic's parliament, the following basic democratic principles were formally endorsed: a multi-party system, the rule of law, respect for human rights, religious freedom and guarantees for the rights of national minorities.

Direct elections

In July 1990, parliament also approved the introduction of the presidential system with a directly elected president. The then Ukrainian government under Vitold Fokin initiated a gradual and cautious transition to a market economy.

This was then the situation in August 1991, when the non-Russian republics pushed to maximize their sovereignty or even, as in the case of the Baltic republics, to break away, when the hardliners decided that they had to act and re-establish control. They did so, very clumsily, on the very eve of the day Gorbachev declared that a new union treaty would be signed.

The attempted coup suddenly placed in jeopardy everything that had been achieved. Kravchuk and his team were confronted with hardline security officials demanding they support the putschists and temporized. This drew a barrage of criticism from the democratic camp. They were also aware that Gorbachev was being held under house arrest in Crimea, that is, on the territory of sovereign Ukraine.

Failure of the coup cleared the way to independence

During several days of uncertainty, the building of the Ukrainian Writers’ Union became the center of national resistance to the coup. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the center of Kyiv to reject the putschists.

At one of these rallies, the Ukrainian poet Dmytro Pavlychko called on the Soviet Ukrainian parliament to take control of the military units stationed in Ukraine and to appeal to the outside world to recognize Ukraine’s independence.

By Aug. 22, Yeltsin, who had mobilized and led the public resistance to the coup in Moscow, had won the day and a subdued Gorbachev was able to return to the capital. Only then did Kravchuk finally agree to convene an extraordinary session of the Ukrainian parliament two days later — on a Saturday.

Against this backdrop of outrage and relief, the Ukrainian parliament met on Aug. 24 and, under the chairmanship of the shaken Kravchuk, proclaimed Ukraine’s independence.

The author has written extensively about Ukraine's road to independence in his book The Ukrainian Resurgence (University of Toronto Press, and Christopher Hurst, London,1999).