Turning the pages back... September 30, 1990 (09/25/05)

Turning the pages back...

September 30, 1990

Fifteen years ago, on September 30, 1990, more than 100,000 people marched through the streets of the Ukrainian capital to call for Ukraine's independence and to demonstrate their vehement opposition to the proposed union treaty with Moscow. Western news services reported that the demonstration was the largest held in Kyiv (or Kiev as the name of the city was spelled in those days) in more than 70 years of Soviet rule.

The protest began with a mid-afternoon rally outside the city's main stadium where speaker after speaker - among them deputies of the Ukrainian Parliament, leaders of the Popular Movement of Ukraine for Perebudova (Rukh), the Ukrainian Republican Party, the Green World environmental association, the Ukrainian National Democratic Party, the Association of Independent Ukrainian Youth (SNUM) and the Ukrainian Women's Association - stressed that signing a new union treaty would mean continued subjugation of the Ukrainian nation.

According to the Ukrainian Republican Party's press service, Respublika, the speakers also called for the resignation of Leonid Kravchuk, chairman of the Ukrainian SSR Supreme Soviet, and of the party-ruled government headed by Vitaliy Masol, chairman of the Ukrainian SSR Council of Ministers.

Calls were heard also for realization of the principles enumerated in the historic July 16 Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, shutting down the Chornobyl nuclear power station and nationalization of all property in Ukraine owned by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Afterwards, the throng marched down the capital city's main boulevard, the Khreschatyk, carrying slogans such as "Mother Moscow: we want to be orphans" and "Long live the Communist Party - at the Chornobyl power plant," and chanting "Down with the union treaty," reported the Associated Press and United Press International.

Similar demonstrations, according to Respublika, were held in Ivano-Frankivsk, Donetsk and Lviv. Previously, demonstrations protesting a new union treaty were held throughout Ukraine on Sunday, September 16.

Source: "100,000 in Kiev [Kyiv] march to protest union treaty," The Ukrainian Weekly, October 7, 1990, Vol. LVIII, No. 40.

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