Thirty years ago, in October of the fateful year of 1990 – when the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Soviet) of the Ukrainian SSR voted on July 16 for the historic Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine – students declared a hunger strike in Kyiv and released a list of demands: the resignation of Prime Minister Vitaliy Masol (a holdover from the previous regime), new multi-party elections in the spring, the nationalization of Communist Party property, rejection of a new union treaty with Moscow and the return of all Ukrainian soldiers serving beyond the republic’s borders.
The students’ demands were similar to those voiced by the National Council, the democratic bloc of 125 national deputies in the Rada that had been elected in March of that year. The National Council on October 1 walked out of the parliamentary session after the conservative majority (read Communists) of 239 deputies voted for a ban on public gatherings in the main square across from the Parliament building. About 100,000 demonstrators had turned out in Kyiv the day prior to protest against the proposed new union treaty and thousands continued the protest on October 1, when the Verkhovna Rada of the 12th Convocation began its second session.
On October 2, some 150 students from various cities throughout the country erected a tent city at the foot of the Lenin monument on October Revolution Square (today’s Independence Square, or Maidan Nezalezhnosty). The students vowed to continue their public protest until their demands were met. Photos from those days show students with such slogans as “We won’t eat, we won’t drink, until we leave the [Soviet] Union” and “Better to die than to live in the Soviet Union.”
The camp soon became the focus of attention in Kyiv and throughout Ukraine. About 10,000 Kyivans gathered on October 6 to protect the striking students. Every day, representatives of Rukh, the Ukrainian Republican Party, the National Council and other democratic groups visited the students. Another tent camp was set up outside the Verkhovna Rada building as pressure grew on Ukraine’s authorities. Large rallies, marches and strikes in support of the students were held in Ukraine’s capital and beyond. The students’ movement came to be known as the Revolution on Granite (a reference to the paving stones on the square where their camp stood).
The protest ended on October 17 when, capitulating to the student hunger strikes and massive protests, Masol submitted his resignation as prime minister and an overwhelming majority in the Rada resolved to uphold the students’ demands. The Supreme Soviet voted to hold a referendum on confidence in the Parliament in 1991 and multi-party elections if the results of the vote demanded it; to pass laws on voluntary military service beyond the republic’s borders; and to create a commission on nationalization of Communist Party property. Significantly, the Rada also voted to abstain from considering the new union treaty until the Declaration on State Sovereignty was implemented.
And the historic events continued from there. On October 23, the Rada voted to delete Article 6 of the Constitution of Ukraine regarding the “leading role” of the Communist Party in society, while other articles of the Constitution were brought into line with the Declaration on State Sovereignty. The next day the Rada created a constitutional commission charged with preparing the draft of a new constitution by May 1991. At its second congress on October 25-28, Rukh, which was founded in 1989 as the Popular Movement of Ukraine for Perebudova, declared that its goal was no longer simply perebudova but the “renewal of independent statehood for Ukraine.”
All this is history well worth knowing and recalling. In fact, as we write these words on October 29, the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, together with the Ukrainian America Youth Association, will honor these brave students with a webinar that is to feature a panel discussion with a leader of the student strike. The UCCA very aptly noted in its release about this online event: “Thirty years ago this month, the world witnessed something Ukraine had yet to experience – a mass protest in the nation’s capital… Bucking the system and defying Soviet authority, … these brave students of the Revolution on Granite not only organized the first of three major protests in recent Ukraine’s history and galvanized the country’s support but they became the catalysts in/for Ukraine’s quest for independence and democratic governance.”
Today we speak most often about two “maidans”: the Orange Revolution of 2004 and the Euro-Maidan, which became known as the Revolution of Dignity, of 2013-2014. And yet, the first maidan, the Revolution on Granite, must also be remembered as a momentous turning point in the modern history of independent Ukraine.