Twenty-five years ago, on July 16, 1990, the 28th Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine adopted a wide-ranging resolution “On State Sovereignty of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.”
The resolution affirmed the priority of republican law over all-union legislation, Ukrainian ownership of the republic’s land, natural resources and primary means of production, the inviolability of Ukraine’s territory and borders; the right to enter into direct economic trade relations with foreign countries and the exchange of diplomatic representation, and the institution of citizenship of the Ukrainian SSR.
The approval of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine by Ukraine’s Parliament by a vote of 355 for and four against came on July 16, 1990. News of results and the full Ukrainian-language text of the declaration was received by The Ukrainian Weekly via fax from the Kyiv office of Rukh, the Popular Movement of Ukraine for Perebudova.
The declaration stated: “…the state sovereignty of Ukraine as supremacy, independence, fullness and indivisibility of the republic’s authority within the boundaries of its territory, and its independence and equality in external relations.”
However, there was a bit of controversy with the declaration, as the wording promoted Ukraine’s independence while remaining in the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian SSR. The question of citizenship was also left nebulous, and the declaration also asserted the precedence of Ukrainian SSR laws over union laws.
At the time, it was unclear how Kyiv would negotiate with Moscow, as The Weekly’s editorial for that issue noted: “The near future will provide the answer as Ukraine drafts new laws and a Constitution on the basis of this historic declaration – one we might add, that already is being compared to the Third Universal of 1917 which, as we all know, led to the Fourth Universal and the proclamation of independent Ukrainian statehood. This declaration, too, may be the crucial step toward complete independence of Ukraine.”
Source: “Ukraine proclaims sovereignty,” The Ukrainian Weekly, July 22, 1990.