It is generally accepted that the collapse of the Soviet Union was marked by the agreement signed on December 8, 1991, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha by the leaders of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. However, would this have happened at all if not for another event that occurred exactly a week earlier? It was the All-Ukrainian referendum in support of the Act of Proclamation of Independence of Ukraine.
33 years ago, Ukraine became independent, putting an end to the process of its withdrawal from the USSR. On December 1, 1991, 32 million 891.7 thousand citizens (84.2% of the total number of people included in the lists) took part in the fateful nationwide referendum. The referendum ballot included the text of the Act adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on August 24, 1991, and the question: “Do you confirm the Act of Proclamation of Independence of Ukraine?”. 28 million 804.1 thousand citizens, or 90.3%, answered the question in the ballot with “Yes, I confirm”. The population, regardless of their national composition, gave a positive answer. Not only Ukrainians voted for the independence of Ukraine, but also representatives of other peoples for whom the Ukrainian land is their homeland.
The reaction of the world community to the results of the referendum was positive: during December 1991, 68 states recognized Ukraine as independent. The very next day, Canada and Poland announced their recognition of the new state.
Simultaneously with the referendum, Ukrainians elected the first President of Ukraine. 32 million 892.4 thousand people took part in the vote. Six candidates were included in the ballot: V. Hryniov, L. Kravchuk, L. Lukyanenko, L. Taburyansky, V. Chornovil and I. Yukhnovsky. 61.8% of citizens voted for L. Kravchuk. On December 5, 1991, at a solemn meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, L. Kravchuk took the oath to the people of Ukraine.
A week after the Ukrainian referendum, on December 8, 1991, Russian President B. Yeltsin, Ukrainian President L. Kravchuk, and Belarusian Supreme Soviet Chairman S. Shushkevich gathered in Belovezhskaya Pushcha near Minsk and declared that the USSR as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceased to exist.
Three decades later, the Russian Federation openly invaded Ukraine, as the Kremlin authorities in the person of V. Putin deny the very right of Ukrainians to self-determination and life, and of the Ukrainian state to exist. However, despite the Russian Federation’s attempts to hold numerous quasi-referendums in the occupied territories of Ukraine starting in 2014, it was the all-Ukrainian referendum of December 1, 1991, that convincingly proved that even as part of the USSR, Ukraine was not an “artificial formation,” as Putin claims, and unanimously seized the opportunity to regain its freedom.
Iryna Piskareva