Drama, determination, and risk: Remembering how Ukraine's independence unfolded

Editor's note: Because both authors were direct participants in the events described, they are referred to by their first names — Nadia and Robert — throughout, to distinguish their individual roles and recollections.

Neither the United States nor any other country recognized Ukrainian independence when, on Aug. 24, 1991, the Verkhovna Rada adopted its Act of the Declaration of the Independence of Ukraine.

That fact is worth remembering. Why? Because passage of the Declaration reflected a shared calculation between Rukh (the Ukrainian democratic movement, not the political party formed later) and the Communist members who made up the majority of the Rada: Rukh wanted the political legitimacy that a popular vote would provide, while the Communists wanted a way out if the political winds in Moscow shifted in the months ahead.

Since Dec. 1 had already been set as the date for Ukraine's first presidential election, the two votes were merged onto the same day. Thus, the Rada conditioned actual independence on a vote of the people of Ukraine on Dec. 1, 1991.

On Wednesday, Nov. 27, five days before the referendum, President George H. W. Bush hosted a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House with leaders of Ukrainian American organizations and Ukrainian churches; Robert, along with senior White House staff, was also in the room.

At one point, the President said, "If Ukraine votes for independence, there are things I will want before we recognize Ukraine's independence."

He then listed the conditions he would want from Ukraine: commitment to the principles of the Helsinki Final Act (CSCE); non-nuclear status and a commitment to nuclear nonproliferation — commitments already made in Ukraine's 1991 Declaration of Sovereignty, its Declaration of Independence, and the text of the December referendum itself; and Ukraine's adherence to the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty and other military agreements.

At one point, as Robert was taking notes on the President's pre-conditions to recognition of Ukraine's independence, Bush — who knew Robert from their years together in the Reagan Administration — turned to him and asked, "Bob, are you getting all this?"

The President then turned to his National Security Advisor, Brent Scowcroft, and asked if anything else would be needed from Ukraine before the United States would recognize Ukraine's independence, to which Scowcroft replied, "No."

Robert was shocked — the President had said, "If Ukraine votes for independence?" He had doubts?

We certainly had no doubt that the referendum would pass overwhelmingly, as did many others who were following events on the ground in Ukraine.

Among the reasons for our certainty was that we had been privileged to be eyewitnesses to and engaged in several key moments in events preceding Ukraine's declaration of independence and setting the date for the referendum.

Nadia was in Ukraine on Jan. 21, 1990, and, along with the leadership of Rukh, participated in the incredibly successful, unbroken Human Chain that was an unbroken line of people standing together for 550 kilometers from Lviv to Kyiv.

At the time, the Ukrainian flag was still illegal, but supporters had managed to smuggle enough fabric into Ukraine to sew hundreds upon hundreds of Ukrainian flags to cover the full length of the chain.

When Nadia stepped out of the hotel Lebed in downtown Kyiv, she saw buses from Ivano-Frankivsk with people dressed in vyshyvanky and carrying the blue and yellow flags of Ukraine. They ensured Ukrainian flags were displayed along the entire Human Chain and throughout the city of Kyiv.

Rukh's leadership had negotiated with the local authorities and the KGB to hold this rally.

Several days after the Human Chain, Nadia met with Maria Drach, wife of Rukh's chairman, Ivan Drach, in their apartment.

When Ivan Drach arrived, Maria reported a message he had received from the authorities that, in summary, was something like, "You have had your rally, it was time to take down the Ukrainian flag," which hung in front of Rukh's building.

Drach's response was, "We'll think about it," and, eventually, the flag never came down.

Both of us were in Kyiv in March 1990 for the first Verkhovna Rada elections under Soviet rule, in which candidates from outside the Communist Party were permitted to run.

The day after the election, we were invited to take part in the meeting of the Executive Council of Rukh, comprised of Members of the Communist Party, like Rukh's chairman, Ivan Drach, and one of Rukh's founders, Dmytro Pavlychko, as well as Mykhailo Horyn, Head of the Secretariat, and a member of the Helsinki Group who endured years of imprisonment in the Soviet Gulag.

The Executive Council decided to issue a statement blaming the Communist Party for a litany of wrongs committed against the people of Ukraine, and to include the formal resignation from the Communist Party of all the Council's members who still belonged to it.

We watched as one by one they came forward to affix their signatures to the statement.  Among the statement's concluding comments were "We can only serve the truth by leaving the Communist Party" and the claim that "imperialist chauvinism remains the soul of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union."

Several days later, after members of the Executive Council who had been voting in distant oblasts returned and signed the statement, it was presented and read at a press conference.

This was dramatic — this was still the Soviet Union. As those signatures were placed on the document, no one knew what the consequences might be.

In 1990 and 1991, we both made multiple trips to Ukraine and attended meetings with several key organizations that helped secure the referendum vote, including Mothers of Children of Chornobyl, Mothers of Afghan Veterans, youth and Jewish organizations, and Church leaders.

However, the most important of these meetings was with the incredibly strategic Rukh leadership. During these travels, Robert gave a nationally televised keynote speech at the Second Conference of Rukh in September 1990.

Nadia participated in several meetings of the Rukh women from Kyiv who were gathering humanitarian supplies and traveling to villages across Ukraine to prepare for the changes that were coming, including the referendum vote.

Rukh ran a large, deliberate get-out-the-vote effort ahead of the December 1, 1991, referendum — mobilizing an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 activists, who went door-to-door and held town-hall-style meetings with those still skeptical.

Rukh strategically used the time between the Proclamation of Independence and the Referendum to travel across Ukraine, speaking with people and answering their questions, promoting the democracy and freedom that would come with such independence.

However, let us return to President Bush's doubts about the December referendum receiving majority support for independence.

We — the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation — had opened an office in Kyiv in 1990 and not only were we confident the referendum would pass overwhelmingly, but we were also in close communication with Irene Jarosevich — with whom Nadia had worked on the Commemoration of Millenium of Christianity in Ukraine in 1988, and who was then serving as Rukh's international media representative — and with Jon Gunderson, who had arrived to serve as Consul General for the United States in Kyiv (later Charge d'Affaires ad interim with Ukrainian independence).

Both saw things the same way we did. How could the President have doubts?

After the Nov. 27 White House meeting, Robert immediately sent an email — the email system then was not what it is today; it was cumbersome and expensive — to Irene, who translated it and delivered it to Ivan Plyushch, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.

The message included a report about the White House meeting and the conditions stated by President Bush, as well as the observation that it was important to understand the President's conditions and that the President would be the one making the final decision on the recognition of Ukraine's independence.

On Monday, Dec. 2, after 92% of the people of Ukraine voted for independence, Ukraine became independent.

At a press conference, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ivan Plyushch, was asked by an American reporter when Ukraine would be able to meet the 18-20 conditions the United States State Department would require for Ukraine's independence to be recognized.

Plyushch responded that the previous Wednesday, President Bush had listed the conditions he wanted met, and that it was a much shorter list — and the President was the one who would make the final decision with regard to recognizing Ukraine's independence.

Robert learned of Plyushch's exchange with the reporter during a call from the White House.

The Presidential aide said they knew Robert had been in touch with Chairman Plyushch, as he had been the one writing down the President's list in Wednesday's meeting.

On Dec. 2, Poland and Canada recognized the independence of Ukraine, followed by the Russian SFSR. Quite a few other countries then recognized Ukraine before the United States did so on Christmas Day, Dec. 25.

We later understood why President Bush and Mr. Scowcroft did not view the referendum in Ukraine the same as Jon Gunderson.

Gunderson had no secure communications in Kyiv, therefore he, or his number two, John Stepechuk, had to travel to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to file their reports.

However, the Embassy, convinced by the Kremlin that the referendum was in doubt, did not forward Gunderson's reports as written.

What is not understood about Ukraine to this day is the strength of its civil society.

The strategic leadership of Rukh — Ivan Drach, Mykhailo Horyn, and Dmytro Pavlychko — as well as civic leaders such as Maria Drach and Mykola Horbal, parliamentarians such as Volodymyr Yavorivsky and Levko Lukyanenko, and student activists such as Oles Donii, deserve recognition as founders of Ukraine's modern civil society and of its independence.

Every significant development in Ukraine has been led by its people: Ukrainians and many other ethnic groups who call Ukraine home.

Civil society voted 92% in favor of independence and made up the Orange Revolution, the Revolution of Dignity, and the first responders to the full-scale Russian invasion and to Ukraine's ongoing defense.

Civil society's activism grew from Rukh's momentum, and it remains the heart and soul of Ukrainian democracy.

Editor's note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.