Ukraine: Perestroika to Independence Second Edition Taras Kuzio kuzio/83922/mac/crc 27/1/00 9:14 am Page 1 UKRAINE: PERESTROIKA TO INDEPENDENCE kuzio/83922/mac/crc 27/1/00 9:14 am Page 2 Also by Taras Kuzio DISSENT IN UKRAINE (editor) UKRAINE: The Unfinished Revolution UKRAINE: Back from the Brink UKRAINE–CRIMEA–RUSSIA: Triangle of Conflict UKRAINE SECURITY POLICY UKRAINE UNDER KUCHMA: Economic Reform, Political Transformation and Security Policy in Independent Ukraine UKRAINE: STATE AND NATION BUILDING CONTEMPORARY UKRAINE: Dynamics of Post-Soviet Ukraine (editor) STATE AND INSTITUTION BUILDING IN UKRAINE (co-editor) POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN UKRAINE (co-author) kuzio/83922/mac/crc 27/1/00 9:14 am Page 3 Ukraine: Perestroika to Independence Taras Kuzio Visiting Fellow SSEES University College London Second Edition kuzio/83922/mac/crc 27/1/00 9:14 am Page 4 © Taras Kuzio and Andrew Wilson 1994 © Taras Kuzio 2000 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world First edition 1994 Second edition 2000 ISBN 0–333–73844–6 hardcover ISBN 0–333–73983–3 paperback A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10987654321 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire Published in the United States of America by ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 0–312–21674–2 clothbound ISBN 0–312–21675–0 paperback 01UPI-PRE(v-vi) 8/12/99 11:37 AM Page v I would like to dedicate this book to my parents for their help and understanding. This page intentionally left blank 02UPI-PRE(vii) 8/12/99 11:40 AM Page vii Contents Acknowledgement viii List of Maps and Tables ix List of Plates x List of Acronyms and Abbreviations xii Introduction xiii 1 Theories of Nationalism and the Soviet Ukrainian Context 1 2 Strengths and Weaknesses of the National Movement 18 3 Ukraine on the Eve of the Gorbachev Era 43 4 Gorbachev, Dissent and the New Opposition (1987–8) 64 5 Consolidation (1988–9) 83 6 The Birth of Mass Politics (1989–90) 103 7 1990: Ukrainian Elections and the Rise of a Multi-Party System 128 8 Stalemate and the Rise of National Communism (1990–1) 158 9 From Soviet to Independent Ukraine: The Coup and Aftermath 179 10 Conclusions 214 Notes and References 218 Select Bibliography 265 Index 268 vii 03UPI-PRE(viii-xii) 8/12/99 11:39 AM Page viii Acknowledgement The author acknowledges the assistance of Andrew Wilson, the co- author of the first edition, in removing some of the inaccuracies of that edition, but understands that he has no wish to be associated with this edition. Any remaining faults are the author’s own. viii 03UPI-PRE(viii-xii) 8/12/99 11:39 AM Page ix List of Maps and Tables Maps 2.1 Post-1945 boundaries of the Ukrainian SSR within the Soviet Union 20 2.2 Ukrainians in neighbouring territories 21 2.3 Minorities and separatism in Ukraine 24 Tables 2.1 National composition of the Ukrainian population in 1989 30 3.1 Percentage of Ukrainians in the CPU 44 3.2 Growth of the CPU 44 8.1 Results of the 17 March 1991 referendum in Ukraine 169 9.1 Results of the presidential elections of 1 December 1991 197 9.2 Support for independence in the 1 December 1991 referendum 200 ix 03UPI-PRE(viii-xii) 8/12/99 11:39 AM Page x List of Plates 1. Ukrainian Cossack, Summer 1990 2. Demonstration outside KGB headquarters in L′viv, Summer 1990 3. Young men and women take an oath of allegiance to an inde- pendent Ukraine, Summer 1990, Kryvyi Rih 4. Pre-election rally in Kyiv, February 1990 5. Ukrainians wearing the uniforms of the 1917–20 ‘Sich Sharp- shooters’ in Kyiv, January 1990 6. Mass demonstration by 100 000 people in Kyiv on 30 September 1990 against the signing of Gorbachev’s Union Treaty 7. Members of the ‘People’s Council’ lead demonstration in Kyiv, Autumn 1990 8. Celebration of the 500th anniversary of the ‘Days of Cossack Glory’ in Dnipropetrovs′k (Sicheslav), Autumn 1990 9. Levko Lukianenko addresses a rally in the forest of Bykivnia near Kyiv, where, according to ‘Memorial’, up to 240 000 Ukrainian victims of the NKVD lay buried, May 1989 10. Ivan Drach addresses rally in support of Lithuania’s declaration of independence, Kyiv, March 1990 11a. Searching for a lost relative, 7 May 1989 11b. Human bones uncovered at the Bykivnia site, April 1989 12. Radical MP, Stepan Khmara, speaking at the Supreme Council of Ukraine before his arrest in November 1990 13. Viacheslav Chornovil. Ex-dissident, (former) chairman of L′viv oblast council and leading challenger to Leonid Kravchuk in the December 1991 presidential elections 14. Levko Lukianenko, leader of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union–Ukrainian Republican Party, 1988 15. Leading ex-political prisoners, now all deputies, on the day of the Ukrainian Declaration of Sovereignty, 16 July 1990 16. The catacomb Ukrainian Catholic Church holds a service in the woods, Ivano-Frankivs′k, Christmas 1989 17. Patriarch Mstyslav, (formerly) leader of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church 18. The Second Rukh Congress, October 1990, Kyiv x 03UPI-PRE(viii-xii) 8/12/99 11:39 AM Page xi List of Plate xi 19. Opposition figures carry the coffins of leading Ukrainian dissi- dents from the Brezhnev era – Oleksa Tykhyi, Vasyl Stus and Valerii Marchenko – who died in the Gulag, for reburial in Kyiv (November 1990) 20. Ukrainian Catholic hunger strikers in Moscow, August 1989 21. 250 000 crowd demanding the legalisation of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, L′viv, September 1989 22. Demonstration being broken up by riot police outside the Ukrainian parliament, Kyiv, October 1990 23. Student hunger strike, ‘Independence Square’, Kyiv, October 1990 24. The first dismantling in the USSR of the statue of V. I. Lenin in L′viv, September 1990 25. Ukrainian miner protests against ecological damage to Ukraine, Kyiv, October 1990 26. May 1990: Dnipropetrovs′k Afghan veterans beat up Rukh activists whilst militia look on 27. Kyiv, Summer 1991. Poster reads ‘Kravchuk, do not fool around with the Ukrainian people. Luhans′k demands freedom for Ukraine!’ 03UPI-PRE(viii-xii) 8/12/99 11:39 AM Page xii List of Acronyms and Abbreviations CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union CPU Communist Party of Ukraine DPU Democratic Party of Ukraine GWA Green World Association IPA Inter-Party Assembly IWU Independent Workers Union OUN Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists PDRU Party of Democratic Revival of Ukraine PPU Peasants’ Party of Ukraine PUSP Popular Union in Support of Perestroika ROC Russian Orthodox Church Rukh Ukrainian Popular Movement SDPU Social Democratic Party of Ukraine SPU Socialist Party of Ukraine STUU Solidarity Trade Union of Ukraine UANTI Ukrainian Association Independent Creative Intelligentsia UAOC Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church UCC Ukrainian Catholic Church UCDF Ukrainian Christian Democratic Front UDU Ukrainian Democratic Union UHU Ukrainian Helsinki Union UNA Ukrainian National Assembly UNS Ukrainian Nationalist Union UPA Ukrainian Insurgent Army UPDL Ukrainian Peoples Democratic League URP Ukrainian Republican Party USCPS Ukrainian State Committee for the Protection of Society USDPU United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine VOST All-Ukrainian Union of Workers’ Solidarity WUU Writers Union of Ukraine xii 04UPI-PRE(xiii-xiv) 8/12/99 11:39 AM Page xiii Introduction The vote by the Ukrainian parliament to declare independence in the aftermath of the failed August 1991 Soviet coup, and the subsequent ratification of that decision by popular referendum on 1 December 1991, was a crucial factor that helped bring an end to the old USSR, and thrust a hitherto under-researched nation of 52 million people into the limelight. This book aims to redress that past neglect and analyse the events that led up to Ukrainian independence. Chapter 1 examines theoretical work on the development of nation- alism, particularly on the role of the intelligentsia and state elites in generating national revival movements. In the context of the disinte- grating USSR and its previously all-powerful state, it is argued that although the cultural intelligentsia played a crucial early role of initi- ating national and democratic protest as political conditions began to open up in many republics in 1987–90, it tended to be state ‘national communist’ elites that led this movement to success in 1991. Chapter 2 discusses the specific weaknesses of the Ukrainian national movement, which made it even more unlikely that the Ukrainian intelligentsia could take power alone. Chapter 3 examines state and dissident politics in the postwar period, and stresses how the ‘era of stagnation’ proved exceptionally durable in Ukraine, lasting until at least 1989.