Revolution on Granite

Revolution on Granite (Ukrainian: Революція на граніті; Revolyutsiya na hraniti) was a student protest campaign that took place in Kiev, Ukraine, in October 1990.[2][3] Ukraine was then the Ukrainian SSR, part of the Soviet Union (since 1922) until its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union on 24 August 1991.[4] The protest was held from 2 October until 17 October 1990.[3] One of the students' demands was the resignation of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR Vitaliy Masol.[2] On the last day of the protests Masol was forced to resign and was replaced by Vitold Fokin.[5]

Revolution on Granite
Date2 October to 17 October 1990
Location
Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Caused byDissatisfaction with the results of the March 1990 Ukrainian parliamentary election[1]
GoalsResignation of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR Vitaliy Masol
Preventing the signing of a new Union Treaty
New multi-party parliamentary election held before or in the spring of 1991
Military service for Ukrainian (in the Soviet Armed Forces) to be fulfilled only in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
The property of the Communist Party of Ukraine and Komsomol nationalised
MethodsHunger strike and occupation of Kiev's main square
Resulted inMasol was forced to resign
Parties to the civil conflict
Students
Lead figures
Oles Donii
Number
100,000

The Revolution on Granite is considered the first major political protest of Ukraine centered on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square)—the others being the 2004 Orange Revolution, and the 2013–14 Euromaidan.[6][7]

History

The Ukrainian Student Union was launched in August 1989.[2] This organisation was deeply unsatisfied with the results of the March 1990 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[1] In this election the Communist Party of Ukraine had won 331 seats in the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR (the parliament of the Ukrainian SSR) and the Democratic Bloc 111 seats.[1] Student leader Oles Doniy declared that the Democratic Bloc ought to have won a majority.[1] The Student Union then began preparations for a large-scale protest, which was to become known as the Revolution on Granite.[2]

On 2 October 1990 the students announced a hunger strike and occupied Kiev's October Revolution Square (now named Maidan Nezalezhnosti [Independence Square]).[2][3] They had decided against using the originally intended protest site Mariinsky Park since that place was filled with Militsiya (the Soviet police force).[2][3] The day had started with a rally which was attended by 100,000 people and initiated by the People's Movement of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Republican Party, and other smaller patriotic organisations.[2] During the protest various other marches, whose participants numbered in the tens of thousands, were held in solidarity with the students.[7] Also workers' organisations rallied to the cause by calling for nationwide strikes.[7] During the protest, prominent cultural figures, opposition politicians and Soviet dissidents visited the students to show their support.[7] On one of the first days of protests the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR Leonid Kravchuk visited the protestors.[8]

The protesters wanted to prevent the signing of a new Union Treaty, a new multi-party parliamentary election held before or in the spring of 1991, military service for Ukrainian (in the Soviet Armed Forces) to be fulfilled only in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the property of the Communist Party of Ukraine and Komsomol nationalised and the resignation of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, Vitaliy Masol.[2] The demand to not sign a newly proposed Union Treaty, which would transform the Soviet Union into the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics, was part of the then resurgence of Ukrainian nationalism.[7] (In 1991 Ukraine become an independent country.[7])

On the first day of the protest, only a few dozen students from Kiev, Lviv, Dneprodzerzhinsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, and several other cities gathered at the square. In a few days there were several hundreds of them, along with around tens of thousands of Ukrainians who supported them.[9] The students set up shelter-half tents on the square.[10] The protest acquired its name from the setup of the tents on the granite of the square.[10] Of all protesters, about 200 were on hunger strike (all of them survived their action).[8][7] Eventually another camp was set up in front of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR.[7] During the protest and because deputies had sided with the students,[7] student Oles Doniy from the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University stated the students' demands in a speech for the Ukrainian parliament.[9][7]

On 17 October 1990 Masol was forced to resign and was replaced by Vitold Fokin.[5] The four other student demands were not initially met.[2] But soon military conscription was to be limited to the territory of Ukraine; the new planned Union Treaty was not to be taken into consideration and multi-party elections were set to be held in the 1994 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[11]

Long-term effects

Various Revolution on Granite organizers later became leading figures in organising the 2004 Orange Revolution.[10] Mykhaylo Svystovych and Vyacheslav Kyrylenko started their political career with taking part in the Revolution on Granite.[7]

The Revolution on Granite is viewed as the first major political protest centered on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the others being the 2004 Orange Revolution, and the 2013–14 Euromaidan.[6][10][11][12] These protest largely mimicked the style of protest of the Revolution on Granite: occupation of a large square and building a stage there where artist would perform.[7]

References
  1. КАЛІНІЧЕНКО В.В., РИБАЛКА І.К. ІСТОРІЯ УКРАЇНИ. ЧАСТИНА ІІІ: 1917-2003 рр. (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2008-05-12.
  2. The lesson of the Revolution on Granite, Den (4 October 2016)
  3. (in Ukrainian) "Revolution on Granite". Photos of October 1990, Ukrayinska Pravda (accessdate: 11 November 2017)
  4. A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples by Paul Robert Magocsi, University of Toronto Press, 2010, ISBN 1442610212 (pages 563/564 & 722/723)
  5. How Ukraine Became a Market Economy and Democracy by Anders Åslund, Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2009, ISBN 978-0881324273
    Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States 1999, Routledge, 1998, ISBN 1857430581 (page 850)
  6. The Conflict in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know by Serhy Yekelchyk, Oxford University Press, 2015, ISBN 0190237287 (Chapter 1 "Why Ukraine")
  7. The Revolution On Granite: Ukraine's 'First Maidan', Radio Free Europe (16 October 2020
  8. (in Ukrainian) Granite Revolution: We can be called cynics who are ready to die for an idea, Istorychna Pravda (2 October 2020)
  9. (in Ukrainian) Photo-chronology of the student revolution of the 1990s, Ukrayinska Pravda (accessdate: 10 December 2017)
  10. The Conflict in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know by Serhy Yekelchyk, Oxford University Press, 2015, ISBN 0190237279 (page 2)
  11. Where does the key to political change lie in the post-Soviet space?, openDemocracy (23 August 2016)
  12. Why Ukraine Is So Important, Business Insider (28 January 2014)
    The Process of Politicization: How Much Politics Does a Society Need?, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017, ISBN 1-4438-9628-4 (page 154)
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