Every August 24, Ukrainians celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1991. Yet Ukrainian state identity did not suddenly appear with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukrainians had struggled for political self-determination under different empires and regimes for generations, including through earlier state-building projects, cultural resistance, dissident movements, and revolutions.
The history of Ukraine is too extensive to cover fully in a single article. Instead, the focus of the article is on the political movements, civic organizations, dissidents, students, and democratic decisions that immediately preceded the restoration of Ukrainian independence in 1991.
Perestroika Opened a Door the Soviet System Could Not Close
When Mikhail Gorbachev introduced perestroika (restructuring), glasnost (greater openness), and a democratization process in 1985, the Soviet leadership intended to reform but preserve the USSR (Kuzio, 2000). A similar trend with varying degrees of success has occurred in socialist countries on different continents. In Ukraine, however, the limited decline of censorship and political repression allowed previously silenced questions to return: the history, the truth about Soviet crimes, environmental destruction after Chornobyl, religious freedom, and Ukraine’s political sovereignty.
Informal civic organizations began forming around these concerns. The Ukrainian Helsinki Group, founded in 1976, documented Soviet violations of the human-rights commitments established by the Helsinki Accords. During glasnost, former members of the Group and other dissidents revived the movement and, in July 1988, established the broader Ukrainian Helsinki Union, also translated as the Ukrainian Helsinki Association. The new organization promoted human rights, democratic reform, and Ukrainian sovereignty (Petik, 2023; “Ukrainian Helsinki Association”, n.d.).
The most influential mass organization was the People’s Movement of Ukraine for Perestroika, commonly known as Rukh. Coming out in support of perestroika, Rukh quickly became a broad national-democratic movement that united writers, students, workers, former political prisoners, environmental activists, and citizens seeking genuine political change (“Perestroika”, n.d.)
SUSK’s archives captured this political transformation before Rukh was formally established. In a March-April 1989 article for Student, Chrystia Freeland described how writers, dissidents, university students, environmental activists, and human-rights organizations were beginning to unite behind the idea of a Ukrainian popular movement (Freeland, 1989). An environmental demonstration in Kyiv attended by approximately 10,000 people became a platform for broader political demands. Organizations such as the university-based Hromada, the cultural society Spadshchyna, Memorial, and the Ukrainian Helsinki Union connected campaigns for ecology, historical memory, language, and culture with a wider challenge to Soviet centralization. The article also highlights arrests, intimidation, and activists’ fears that glasnost could be reversed, demonstrating that participation still involved serious personal risks (Freeland, 1989).
This archival connection also reaches into the present. The article’s author, Chrystia Freeland, later served as Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and, as of 2026, serves as Advisor to the President of Ukraine on Economic Development. Her journey from contributing to SUSK’s Student newspaper in 1989 to holding senior public roles connected to both Canada and Ukraine demonstrates how student and diaspora engagement can continue to influence public life decades later (“President Held the First Meeting”, 2026).
One of the movement’s most recognizable figures was Vyacheslav Chornovil. A journalist, dissident, and Soviet political prisoner, Chornovil had spent years documenting political repression and defending Ukrainian culture. His life illustrates an important truth and a slice of that era where independence was not simply granted by reform-minded officials in Moscow. It was advanced by people who accepted imprisonment, struggle, professional exclusion, surveillance, and exile rather than abandon the principles of human dignity and national freedom (Kozhanov et al., 2022).
SUSK’s archives also show that Ukrainian students in Canada closely followed these developments; thus, the January-February 1990 issue of Student declared that Ukraine and the Baltic states had “come alive” and described Rukh as a political force that the Soviet regime could no longer ignore. It also noted the growing trend of student movements and the participation of a younger generation in politics, activism and cultural renewal (Student Newspaper Publishing, 1990).
From Sovereignty to Independence
The democratization also changed Soviet Ukraine’s formal political institutions, where more competitive elections in March 1990 brought national-democratic representatives into the Ukrainian parliament. On July 16, 1990, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, asserting the supremacy of Ukraine’s laws, the inviolability of its territory, and its right to determine its own political, economic, and cultural development (“Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine”, 1990).
It was not yet full independence, but it created an essential legal and political foundation.
The decisive moment arrived after the August 1991 coup attempt by Soviet hard-liners, commonly known as the GKChP putsch. On August 19, eight senior Soviet officials formed the State Committee for the State of Emergency, placed Mikhail Gorbachev under effective house arrest, and attempted to prevent the signing of a new Union Treaty that would have transferred greater authority from Moscow to the Soviet republics. The coup collapsed by August 21, but it exposed the danger of renewed authoritarian rule and accelerated Ukraine’s movement toward independence (Siegelbaum, n.d.; “On Declaration of Independence of Ukraine”, 1991). On August 24, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Act of Declaration of Independence, proclaiming Ukraine an independent democratic state and declaring its territory indivisible and inviolable (“On Declaration of Independence of Ukraine”, 1991).
The decision was then placed directly before the people. In the December 1 referendum, 84.18% of eligible voters participated, and 28,804,071 people, 90.32% of those who voted, supported independence (“Information Materials”, 2021). A majority voted in favour in every region of Ukraine, including Crimea and Donbas, demonstrating that independence was not limited to one language or ethnic group, political movement, or age group. It was a nationwide democratic mandate (“Information Materials”, 2021).
Why It Matters Now
For people today, understanding this history helps challenge the false idea that Ukraine is an artificial state that did not want independence, but it had no choice because of the fall of the USSR. The events of 1991 were the culmination of cultural survival, dissident resistance, civic organization, activism, student participation, democratic mobilization, and a clear popular vote.Such events in Ukraine and 14 other republics of the Soviet Union were influenced by accumulated hostility to communism, the Soviet system, censorship, suppression of crimes of the past, a very low standard of living, corruption and nepotism, a series of tragedies, and general fatigue of the nations. Admittedly, the collapse of the USSR was not a peaceful process, and virtually all former republics experienced violence, economic crisis, instability, and some even military conflicts. Ukraine can be considered a vivid example of this, while once again defending its independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity against Russia’s military aggression. Supporting Ukraine therefore means supporting the new pro-European path, as well as democratic values supported by millions of citizens in 1991 and defended by Ukrainians today.
Ukrainian Canadian students can contribute by studying this history, correcting disinformation, debunking myths, preserving Ukrainian culture, organizing on campus, supporting Ukrainian Student Organizations, and keeping Ukraine present in Canadian academic and public life.
Independence is not only an anniversary inherited from the past. It is a democratic achievement that must be understood, protected, and carried into the future.
Glory to Ukraine! Glory to Our Independence!
REFERENCES
Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, No. 55-XII. (1990, July 16). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/en/55-12
Freeland, C. (1989, March–April). Popular movement radicalizing Ukraine. Student, 21(105), 5. Retrieved from https://www.student.susk.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/STUDENT-1989-March-April.pdf
Information materials of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory for the 30th anniversary of the All-Ukrainian referendum of December 1, 1991. (2021, November 29). Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. Retrieved from https://uinp.gov.ua/informaciyni-materialy/derzhsluzhbovcyam/informaciyni-materialy-ukrayinskogo-instytutu-nacionalnoyi-pamyati-do-30-richchya-vseukrainskogo-referendumu-1-grudnya-1991-roku
Kozhanov, A., Sikorska, V., Shypotilova, O., Myrgorodska, N., Kurasova, N., & Nenov, I. (2022). Ukrainian oppositional press during the late 1980s–the early 1990s: Social-communicative aspect. Amazonia Investiga, 11(58), 140–150. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.58.10.15
Kuzio, T. (2000). Ukraine: Perestroika to independence (2nd ed.). Macmillan Press. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333984345
On Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, No. 1427-XII. (1991, August 24). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1427-12?lang=en
Perestroika. (n.d.). Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta. Retrieved from https://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CP%5CE%5CPerestroika.htm
Petik, I. (2023, November 9). The Ukrainian Helsinki Group is 47 years old: We talk about the creation and activities of the human rights organization. Centre for Civil Liberties. Retrieved from https://ccl.org.ua/en/news/the-ukrainian-helsinki-group-is-47-years-old-we-talk-about-the-creation-and-activities-of-the-human-rights-organization/
President held the first meeting of the International Advisory Group to attract investment to Ukraine and develop priority economic sectors. (2026, February 26). Office of the President of Ukraine. Retrieved from https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/prezident-proviv-pershe-zasidannya-mizhnarodnoyi-konsultativ-103133
Siegelbaum, L. (n.d.). The August coup. Seventeen Moments in Soviet History, Michigan State University. Retrieved from https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1991/august-coup/
Student Newspaper Publishing. (1990, January–February). Student, 22(107). Ukrainian Canadian Students’ Union.