Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union

by Vladislav M. Zubok

The Russian declaration of sovereignty triggered “the parade of sovereignties” in other republics. Most notable was the declaration of “state sovereignty of Ukraine” on 16 July 1990. There had been two previous declarations in Ukrainian history. The first had been passed by the Ukrainian Rada in Kiev in January 1918, to protect the land against Bolshevik invasion and insurgency. The second had been made in Lvov on 30 June 1941, by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), murderous ethnic nationalists, who praised “cooperation with the national-socialist Greater Germany, which under the leadership of Adolf Hitler creates a new order in Europe.” The new Ukrainian declaration was mostly a copycat version of the Russian one. It claimed that all resources on Ukrainian territory belonged to “the people of Ukraine” and promised to represent all “Ukrainians” outside the republic. Ukraine owned everything on its territory, could have its own State Bank and armed forces. The declaration referred to the Soviet Union only indirectly, by claiming the republic should share in “Union wealth,” such as the state’s reserves of gold and currency.