Ukraine's Independence Day: A Millennium-Long Struggle for Sovereignty Culminating in the 1991 Declaration Against Soviet Rule.
Ukraine’s Independence Day, known as Den' Nezalezhnosti України, celebrated annually on the 24th of August, is far more than a mere national holiday marking a political separation. It is the culmination of a millennium-long struggle for self-determination, a profound cultural resurrection, and a solemn vow etched into the consciousness of a nation that has fiercely defended its right to exist against centuries of subjugation. The date itself, August 24, 1991, refers to the formal adoption of the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine by the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) in the wake of the failed August Putsch in Moscow. However, to understand the true weight and meaning of this day, one must journey back through the annals of history, through periods of glorious sovereignty and brutal oppression, to appreciate why independence was not merely a political event but the reawakening of a national spirit long suppressed.
The roots of the Ukrainian desire for independence stretch back to the medieval state of Kyivan Rus', the common cultural and historical ancestor of modern Ukrainians, Russians, and Belarusians. The zenith of its power came under Volodymyr the Great, who Christianized Rus' in 988, and his son Yaroslav the Wise. The fragmentation of this powerful realm following the Mongol invasions in the 13th century left Ukrainian lands vulnerable and divided among competing powers, including the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland, and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was during this era that the Cossacks emerged as a formidable force on the steppes of central Ukraine. Establishing their own semi-autonomous military society, the Zaporozhian Sich, the Cossacks became the undisputed defenders of the Ukrainian people and the embodiment of the ideals of freedom and self-rule. Their struggle against Polish domination culminated in the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648, which led to the creation of the Cossack Hetmanate, a Ukrainian state that entered into a military alliance with the Tsardom of Russia through the Pereiaslav Agreement of 1654. This agreement, intended as a strategic partnership to secure protection from the Poles and Ottomans, was gradually interpreted by Moscow as an act of perpetual union, leading to the steady erosion of the Hetmanate's autonomy and its eventual abolition by Catherine the Great in the late 18th century. The entire territory of Ukraine was subsequently absorbed into the Russian Empire, with its westernmost regions falling under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The 19th century was a period of intense Russification under Tsarist rule. The Ukrainian language was suppressed by the Valuev Circular of 1863 and the Ems Ukaz of 1876, which banned its use in print, public performances, and education. This was a deliberate policy to extinguish Ukrainian national identity and forge a monolithic "All-Russian" nation. Yet, this oppression also fueled a powerful national revival. The works of poets like Taras Shevchenko, whose Kobzar became a foundational text of modern Ukrainian national consciousness, and intellectuals like Mykhailo Hrushevsky, kept the flame of independence alive. The collapse of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires at the end of World War I presented a fleeting but pivotal opportunity. On January 22, 1918, the Central Rada of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) proclaimed its independence, followed by the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) later that year. This period of independence was tragically short-lived. The nascent republics were crushed in a brutal war involving Bolshevik Russia, White Russian forces, Poland, and other actors. By 1921, most of Ukraine was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, while its western lands were divided among Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania.
Soviet rule brought unimaginable horrors. The Holodomor of 1932-33, an artificial famine engineered by Stalin's policies of forced collectivization and grain requisitioning, killed millions of Ukrainians in what is widely recognized as an act of genocide aimed at crushing the peasantry, the backbone of the nation. The Great Purge of the late 1930s decimated the Ukrainian intellectual, cultural, and political elite. Despite being a founding member of the UN in 1945, the Ukrainian SSR was a puppet state, utterly subservient to Moscow. Any dissent was mercilessly quashed by the NKVD and later the KGB. However, the spirit of resistance never died. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) continued a partisan war against Soviet rule into the 1950s. The decades that followed saw cycles of cautious cultural liberalization and renewed repression, but the desire for freedom simmered beneath the surface.
The catalyst for the final act of liberation was the policy of Perestroika (restructuring) and Glasnost (openness) initiated by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s. These reforms, intended to revitalize the Soviet system, inadvertently unleashed long-suppressed nationalist sentiments across the republics. In Ukraine, the watershed moment was the tragedy of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in April 1986. The Soviet government's initial attempts to conceal the catastrophe and its incompetent handling of the aftermath exposed the fatal flaws of the centralized system and bred deep-seated resentment, demonstrating that Moscow could not be trusted with the well-being of the Ukrainian people. This sparked a wave of environmental and political activism. The People's Movement of Ukraine, known as Rukh, was established in 1989, becoming a powerful force for democratic change and independence. On January 21, 1990, on the anniversary of the 1918 unification of the UNR and ZUNR, over 400,000 Ukrainians formed a human chain stretching over 600 kilometers from Kyiv to Lviv in a powerful display of national unity known as the "Living Chain." This event signaled that the people were ready for sovereignty.
The final collapse of the Soviet center provided the immediate opportunity. On August 19, 1991, hardline Communist officials in Moscow launched a coup to overthrow Gorbachev and reverse his reforms. As tanks rolled into Moscow, the world watched with bated breath. In Kyiv, the Communist leadership of the Ukrainian SSR, led by Leonid Kravchuk, initially hesitated. However, pressured by a determined democratic opposition and a populace that mobilized in protest, the Verkhovna Rada moved decisively. On August 24, with the coup collapsing in failure, the parliament gathered in a historic session. In a moment of immense political and symbolic importance, the communist majority, seeing the shifting tides, voted alongside the national-democrats. They adopted the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, which proclaimed that "the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic hereby becomes an independent, democratic state, Ukraine." The act was put to a national referendum on December 1, 1991, to give it ultimate democratic legitimacy. An overwhelming 92.3% of voters endorsed independence, and even in the Crimean peninsula, where ethnic Russians were a majority, over 54% voted in favor. Simultaneously, Leonid Kravchuk was elected as the first President of Ukraine. The vote was a stunning and unequivocal repudiation of the Soviet project. Less than two weeks later, on December 8, the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus signed the Belavezha Accords, declaring the Soviet Union effectively dissolved and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The dream, fought for by generations, was finally a reality.
The early years of independence were fraught with immense challenges. The transition from a command economy to a market system was painful, leading to hyperinflation and a dramatic decline in living standards. Political corruption became endemic, and Ukraine struggled to define its foreign policy identity, torn between its historical ties to Russia and its aspirations for European integration. The presidency of Leonid Kuchma saw periods of reform and stagnation, but the nation's democratic spirit could not be extinguished. The Orange Revolution of 2004 was a powerful testament to this. When a fraudulent presidential election attempted to install the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians clad in orange, the color of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko's campaign, peacefully occupied Kyiv's Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) for weeks. Their victory forced a rerun of the election and brought Yushchenko to power, reaffirming that the Ukrainian people were the ultimate guardians of their sovereignty.
This hard-won independence faced its most severe test a decade later. In late 2013, President Yanukovych's sudden refusal to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union, under pressure from Moscow, sparked another mass protest movement known as the Revolution of Dignity or Euromaidan. For three months, protesters braved freezing temperatures and violent police crackdowns on the Maidan. The climax came in February 2014, when snipers killed over 100 protesters, the "Heavenly Hundred." Yanukovych fled to Russia, and a new pro-European government was established. In response, Russia illegally annexed Crimea in March 2014 and fomented a war in the Donbas region by supporting separatist militias. This war, which has claimed over 14,000 lives, transformed Independence Day from a purely celebratory occasion into a day of solemn remembrance and renewed resolve. Since the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, the meaning of Independence Day has been irrevocably altered. It is now a day to honor the incredible courage and sacrifice of the Ukrainian armed forces and civilians who are giving their lives to defend the independence declared in 1991. The holiday is marked not just by joy, but by a grim determination to prevail against an existential threat.
The celebration of Independence Day itself is a rich tapestry of official ceremonies, cultural events, and personal reflections. The day traditionally begins with a solemn ceremony at the Wall of Remembrance for the Fallen for Ukraine in the capital, Kyiv, where the President lays flowers to honor those who have died defending the nation. This is followed by a military parade. However, since 2014, the nature of these parades has shifted. In many years, the traditional display of heavy military hardware has been replaced by a "March of the Invincibles," a solemn column of veterans, soldiers' families, and volunteers, emphasizing the human cost of freedom. The central thoroughfare, Khreshchatyk Street, becomes a stage for a massive public festival. Traditional Ukrainian crafts are displayed, stages feature folk music ensembles performing ancient kozaky (Cossack songs) alongside modern pop and rock bands, and people don traditional embroidered shirts (vyshyvanky) as a powerful symbol of national pride. The blue and yellow flag of Ukraine is ubiquitous, flying from buildings, cars, and held aloft by citizens. In the evening, concerts are held on the Maidan, and the day culminates in a spectacular fireworks display, often over the Dnipro River or the iconic Mother Motherland monument.
Yet, since the full-scale invasion, the celebrations have become more subdued and defiant. Military parades are replaced by displays of destroyed Russian tanks in city centers as symbols of resilience. The day is marked by ceremonies to remember the fallen, with the phrase "Heroiam Slava" (Glory to the Heroes) echoing through the streets. It is a day to reflect on the price of independence, a price that is being paid in blood daily. The holiday has also taken on an international dimension, with world leaders expressing solidarity and many global landmarks illuminated in blue and yellow.
In conclusion, Ukraine's Independence Day is a profound and multi-layered event. It is the celebration of a specific legal and political act from 1991, but its soul is centuries older. It is a day to remember the Cossack hosts, the poets of the national revival, the soldiers of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the victims of the Holodomor and the Gulag, the dissidents of the Soviet era, the heroes of the Maidan, and the soldiers on the front lines today. It is a testament to the unbreakable will of a people who have repeatedly chosen freedom, even when the cost is unimaginably high. Den' Nezalezhnosti is not just about the independence won in the parliament in 1991; it is about the independence that is defended every day in the fields of Donbas, the cities of Kharkiv and Mykolaiv, and the hearts of every Ukrainian around the world. It is a living, breathing, and fighting ideal—the ultimate expression of Ukraine's right to exist as a sovereign, European nation, free to determine its own destiny.
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