Turning the pages back... March 24, 1996 (03/19/06)

Turning the pages back...

March 24, 1996

Ten years ago, our issue of March 24, 1996, reported that the Russian Duma, the lower house of that country's Parliament, had voted overwhelmingly - 250 to 98 - for a resolution that reversed a Soviet legislative decision made in December 1991 that renounced the 1922 treaty forming the Soviet Union.

Although the vote on March 15 had no legal force (it was a resolution, not a bill), it perturbed democrats in Russia, as well as democratic forces in other former Soviet republics.

"You cannot turn back history; history cannot be rewound like a tape in a recorder. Ukraine decided its fate and confirmed its independence in a referendum," said Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. His predecessor, Leonid Kravchuk, who signed the Belaya Vezha accord along with Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Belarusian leader Stanislau Shushkevich, said the action could signal "the beginning of the collapse of the Commonwealth of Independent States," a weak body of 12 former Soviet republics.

Our editorial on the topic did not mince words: "Let's just say it right off the bat: The Russian Duma's resolution of March 15 - which attempts to turn the clock back by stating that the break-up of the Soviet Union in December 1991 was illegal - is dangerous. Though it is merely a resolution, not a bill, and thus is not legally binding, it nonetheless gives the world reason to pause and ponder the developments in 'democratic' Russia - not to mention its destabilizing effects regionally and worldwide."

Ukraine immediately denounced the Russian Duma's action in a statement issued by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "In Ukraine, the adoption of this resolution by the State Duma of the Russian Federation is assessed as an attempt by certain political circles in Russia to revive the former USSR," that statement noted. "Ukraine condemns such actions as a threat to peace and stability not only for these countries, but for the entire world as well." It went on to underscore that almost 92 percent of the population (of Ukraine) voted for Ukraine's independence" and states that the Russian Duma's vote was "an internal act of the Russian Federation and cannot have extraterritorial jurisdiction."

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, while visiting Kyiv just four days later, tried to assure Ukraine: "Last week's vote in the Russian Duma to reconstitute the Soviet Union was highly irresponsible. It was as disturbing to us as I know it was to Ukraine. ... Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Union are independent and sovereign nations. Any unilateral attempt to change their status should be rejected by the international community."

Source: "Russian Duma negates decision dissolving USSR," by Marta Kolomayets, Kyiv Press Bureau, and "The Russian Duma speaks its mind" (editorial), The Ukrainian Weekly, March 24, 1996, Vol. LXIV, No. 12.

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