Turning the pages back... December 1, 1991 (12/01/96)

Turning the pages back...

December 1, 1991

"On the map of the world a new European state has emerged - its name - Ukraine."

A special session of the Supreme Council of Ukraine opened with these words by First Deputy Chairman Ivan Pliushch, as Leonid Kravchuk was sworn in as the first popularly elected president of a united new independent Ukrainian state, inaugurating a new era in the often tragic 1,000-year-old history of the Ukrainian nation.

Four days after an overwhelming majority of Ukrainian citizens - 90.32 percent - voted "yes" in the December 1, 1991, referendum on independence and elected him chief executive, President Kravchuk took his oath of office to the people of Ukraine with his hand placed on two documents: Ukraine's current Constitution and the Act of Declaration of the Independence of Ukraine.

"I solemnly swear to the people of Ukraine to realize my authority as president, to strictly adhere to the Constitution and laws of Ukraine, to respect and protect the rights and liberties of people and citizens, to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine and to conscientiously fulfill my obligations," pledged the new president.

On a table next to him lay the more than 500-year-old Peresopnytsky Gospel, the first Bible in Old Ukrainian, "as a symbol of the continuity of Ukrainian history," according to Deputy Ivan Zayets.

In the space above the chairman's podium, where a giant statue of Lenin once stood, was a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian national flag.

During the solemn ceremonies, which featured a choir singing "Bozhe Velykyi Yedynyi" and "Sche Ne Vmerla Ukraina" and an address by the new president, the Ukrainian Parliament formally renounced Ukraine's participation in the 1922 act creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The results of the December 1 plebiscite also rendered invalid the results of the March 17, 1991, all-union referendum on a renewed union, said Deputy Vitaliy Boyko, chairman of the Central Electral Commission, during the special session. It also served as a vote of confidence in the existing Ukrainian Supreme Council, said Mr. Pliushch.

Mr. Pliushch was elected chairman of the Ukrainian legislature by a vote of 261 to 100 following the ceremonial part of the session.

International reaction to the results of the referendum and presidential race dominated the days following December 1.

Poland and Canada were the first states to recognize Ukraine, doing so on December 2. The next day, Hungary and Ukraine signed the first protocol establishing full diplomatic relations and transforming the Hungarian Consulate in Kyiv to the first foreign embassy in the capital.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a statement on December 3 recognizing Ukraine's independence and expressing the need to forge new interstate relations between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Mr. Yeltsin had announced several times the previous week that if Ukraine did not join the new political Union of Sovereign States neither would the RSFSR.

During a press conference following his swearing-in ceremony, President Kravchuk said he would have no right to sign a union treaty that some 31 million people had rejected in the December 1 vote for Ukrainian independence.

The Bush administration issued a restrained response welcoming the favorable referendum results and congratulating Mr. Kravchuk on his election. The statement stopped short of formal recognition and reiterated many of the previously stated U.S. requirements for recognition of Ukraine's independence.

However, as Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatoliy Zlenko noted at a December 3 press conference,"The first Western leader to call Mr. Kravchuk after the referendum was (U.S. President George) Bush."

Source: "INDEPENDENCE; Over 90 percent vote 'yes' in referendum, Kravchuk elected president of Ukraine" by Chrystyna Lapychak, The Ukrainian Weekly, December 8, 1991 (Vol. LIX, No. 49).