EXPLAINER: 35 Years Ago Today, the World Held Its Breath

Thirty-five years ago, on Aug. 19, 1991, a group of Soviet hardliners sought to turn back the wheel of history. They attempted to stage a coup in Moscow, and for several days, the fate of the Soviet Union, and understandably also of the then still Soviet Ukrainian republic, was uncertain. Beyond the USSR, the world also nervously awaited the outcome.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. On the eve of the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence reaffirmation, let’s recall these events that precipitated the Soviet Union’s dissolution and the emergence of an independent Ukraine. Desperate to preserve the Soviet empire The Communist hardliners sought to halt the democratization process initiated by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev through his policies of perestroika and glasnost. In particular, they wanted to preserve the centrally controlled Soviet empire masquerading as a “union” of “sovereign” republics by blocking his plan to preserve this unitary state through a new compromise “Union treaty” with increasingly nationally self-assertive non-Russians. The Soviet Union was imploding. Within Moscow itself, fractures had opened up. The liberal Communist Boris Yeltsin had broken ranks, adopted a democratic position, and, in challenging Gorbachev, promoted the state sovereignty of the Russian Federation. When the Russian parliament proclaimed it on June 12, 1990, it became a precedent and opened the door for others. Unexpectedly and unwittingly, Yeltsin served both as the Russian ally and catalyst Ukraine’s pro-independence forces needed. Other Topics of Interest Fedorov Calls for Wartime Elections, Says Putin Shouldn’t Set the Timeline Former Defense Minister Fedorov outlined conditions for voting rights covering soldiers, refugees abroad, and frontline residents. Ukraine defends its newly asserted sovereignty By this time, Ukraine, where Soviet rule had remained harsher than in other non-Russian republics, had also begun to reclaim its rights. Following the example set in the Baltic republics, an alliance of democratic, patriotic forces coalesced in 1989 into the Rukh movement and was promoting an agenda leading to independence. On July 16, 1990, the Soviet Ukrainian parliament also affirmed the republic’s state sovereignty. Some of its Communist leaders, the so-called “sovereignty Communists” led by Leonid Kravchuk, were now also standing up to Gorbachev, rejecting his proposed Union treaty, and seeking maximum freedom from Moscow. During the final months of 1990, Ukraine asserted 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 of that year, Hungary, Poland and the Russian Federation formally recognized Ukrainian sovereignty. Ukraine also adopted a higher profile at the United Nations and applied for direct representation in the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe process. Another indication of its new independent course came in January 1991 when the presidium of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet publicly condemned the Soviet military crackdown in defiant Lithuania. The forgotten first crucial referendum With Gorbachev stepping up pressure on the republics to sign a new union treaty by announcing an all-union referendum on the future of the USSR, Kravchuk came up with an ingenious compromise: the Ukrainian parliament decided that Ukraine would conduct its opinion poll on the same day as the referendum, a poll that would qualify the terms on which Ukraine would agree to remain part of the Soviet Union. The three regions of Western Ukraine also decided to add a third question, polling voters on their attitude toward Ukrainian independence. In the March 17, 1991 vote, 70.5 percent of actual voters (58 percent of those eligible to vote) still supported preserving the Union. But this result was offset by the more enthusiastic endorsement (80.2 percent of those who voted) of the supplementary proposal, which said Ukraine would join only a new “union of sovereign republics.” Rejecting Gorbachev For the record, in Kyiv, a city which had which until recently had seemed thoroughly Russified, the majority rejected Gorbachev’s proposal; and in Western Ukraine over 90 percent of the voters supported independence. Kravchuk interpreted the Ukrainian referendum results as a vote “for the kind of union in which Ukraine would be a sovereign state with full rights, a state that would be a master in its own house.” At the end of June 1991, the Soviet Ukrainian parliament upset the Soviet leader’s plans by voting to postpone further discussion of the proposed new union treaty until mid-September. Meanwhile, under Kravchuk’s guidance and continuing pressure from Rukh, the work of parliament entered a more constructive phase. Measures were taken to reorganize and rationalize the state administration, and a concept of a new Ukrainian constitution was agreed upon. Although conservative Communist deputies still held a majority in the parliament, it formally endorsed the following fundamental democratic principles: a multiparty system, the rule of law, respect for human rights, religious freedom, and guarantees of the rights of national minorities. In June 1991, parliament also approved creating a presidential system with a directly elected president. The Ukrainian government headed at that time by Vitold Fokin embarked on a gradual and cautious transition to a market economy. The putsch and its rejection This then was the situation in August – with the non-Russian republics pressing hard to maximize their sovereignty, or even, as in the case of the Baltic republics, to break free – when the hardliners decided they had to act and restore control. They did, very clumsily, on the eve of the day that Gorbachev planned to have his new, further watered-down version of the Union Treaty signed, though still without Ukraine. The attempted putsch suddenly placed in jeopardy everything that had been achieved. Confronted with hardline security officials demanding they support the putschists, Kravchuk and his team temporized. This drew a barrage of criticism from the democratic camp. They were even reminded that Gorbachev was being held under house arrest in Crimea, that is, on the territory of sovereign Ukraine. For a few tense days of uncertainty, the Ukrainian Writers’ Union building became the center of national opposition to the putsch. Thousands of protesters gathered in the center of Kyiv to say no to the putschists. At one of the protest meetings, the Ukrainian poet Dmytro Pavlychko called on the Soviet Ukrainian parliament to assert control over military units stationed in Ukraine and to appeal to the outside world to recognize Ukraine’s independence. By Aug. 22, Yeltsin, who mobilized and led public resistance to the putsch in Moscow, emerged victorious, and Gorbachev returned to the Soviet capital. Only then did Kravchuk finally agree to convene an extraordinary, or rather, emergency, session of the Ukrainian parliament two days later – on a Saturday. Leonid Kravchuk chairing the stormy meeting in the Ukrainian parliament on Aug. 24, 1991. (Photo: Holos Ukrainy) Against this backdrop of outrage and relief, and closely following events in Moscow, the Ukrainian parliament met. With a shaken Kravchuk presiding over a parliament still dominated by demoralized and anxious Communists, Ukraine’s independence could be declared. Wisely, it was made dependent on a nation-wide referendum scheduled for Dec. 1. On that historic day, 84.1 per cent of the eligible voters, or almost 32 million people, cast their vote and 90.3 per cent backed independence. Kravchuk was elected president, obtaining a 61.5 per cent of the votes. Within days, after more than 70 years, the Soviet rule was history. The author is completing a book examining Ukraine’s first 35 years of modern independent statehood, provisionally titled “Indomitable Ukraine 1991-2026: The Reemergence of a European Nation.” An earlier version of this article was published by Kyiv Post on Aug. 19, 2023.