Turning the pages back... September 8, 1989 (09/02/01)

Turning the pages back...

September 8, 1989

Twelve years ago, The Ukrainian Weekly reported on the historic congress in Kyiv that formally declared the establishment of the Popular Movement of Ukraine for Perebudova, or Rukh. According to eyewitness reports, the event stirred a packed hall to joyful tears and fraternal embraces as all present sang the words of Taras Shevchenko's "Testament."

The following is based on the first news story about the founding of Rukh.

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The three-day congress, held at Kyiv's Polytechnical Institute on September 8-10, was punctuated with one emotional moment after another, as well as with moments of unprecedented candor, in a republic that continues to struggle under the forces of stagnation and repression, according to various sources.

Viewing the Popular Movement of Ukraine for Perebudova as a political threat, the ruling conservative elements led by the chief of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Volodymyr Scherbytsky, had held up the formation of Rukh for a year and a half with an anti-Rukh propaganda campaign in the mass media.

Despite this campaign, the congress attracted approximately 1,200 delegates, Soviet and foreign media, and guests, who hailed from all over Ukraine, other Soviet republics, Poland, Western Europe and North America.

Kyiv writer Oles Honchar delivered the opening remarks: "Gathered here are not those who are driven by ambition, as the bureaucrats attempt to assert. From this congress's rostrum the truth of life will speak, as well as concern for the fate of perebudova, the fate of Ukraine. Only a tradition of labeling could treat the totally natural activity of the Popular Movement in the rebirth of the Ukrainian language and culture as aimed against someone. These are old tunes - sowing suspicion, cultivating hatred, inciting one nation against another - a method well-known since the ancient Romans ('divide and conquer')."

In a hall full of people waving banned Ukrainian blue-and-yellow flags and decorated with historical emblems, speakers expressed suggestions ranging from the resignation of Mr. Scherbytsky and full sovereignty for Ukraine within a confederation of free republics, to outright independence.

Rukh's platform, as outlined in a program and statutes adopted in principle on the second day of the congress, resembled those adopted a year earlier by the popular fronts in the Baltic republics. Guided by "the principles of humanism, democracy, glasnost, pluralism, social justice and internationalism," Rukh's platform calls for political and economic sovereignty, the reversal of decades of Russification in Ukraine, protection of the environment, and protection of the rights of national minorities and ethnic groups living in Ukraine.

The congress also elected Kyiv poet Ivan Drach, who heads the Kyiv regional Rukh organization to lead the republican Popular Movement. Serhii Koniev of Dniprodzerzhynsk, one of 32 members of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR from Ukraine who attended the congress, was elected vice-chairman. Mykhailo Horyn of Lviv, a leading activist of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union, was elected to head the Rukh secretariat.

A number of representatives of popular movements, parties, public organizations and foreign delegations from the Baltic republics, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Uzbekistan, as well as representatives of the Crimean Tatars, delivered greetings.

Among the highlights of the congress was the dramatic speech delivered by Solidarity activist Adam Michnik, who headed a six-person delegation from Poland's Solidarity, traveling on Polish diplomatic passports.

Mr. Michnik expressed Solidarity's support of the Rukh: "We are glad that now, on this historic day, at this solemn moment for Ukraine and for all of Europe, there are Poles in this hall. We are glad that at this time of national rebirth - for which you paid the price of camps, trials, suffering, pain and the death of the best sons of this land - Solidarity is with you, Poland is with you. May fortune be with you! May God give you strength! Long live a democratic, just, free Ukraine!"

Source: "Popular Movement for Perebudova founded in Ukraine," The Ukrainian Weekly, September 17, 1989, Vol. LVII, No. 38; also in "The Ukrainian Weekly 2000," Volume 2, Parsippany, N.J.: The Ukrainian Weekly, 2001.

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