Pennsylvania to Kyiv

At three minutes past ten in the morning, on August 24, 1991, 450 Ukrainian politicians took their seats in the hard wooden benches of their parliamentary assembly hall for an extraordinary session. With the palpable weight of an attempted soviet coup in Moscow just a few days prior hanging in the air, tensions were at an all-time high. Each controversial oration in the Ukrainian assembly became a ticking time bomb, with loud and angry conversations amongst deputies rising and order becoming a foregone pipe-dream. In this environment, the First Secretary of the Communist Party quickly approached the large, regal, wooden podium and adjusted his suit jacket while carefully avoiding eye contact with his jeering audience. The chattering turned to a chant, as the chaotic crowd of enraged statesmen yelled at the speaker, “Shame on the Communist Party of Ukraine!” Seeking to maintain control, the communist official violently gestured at the crowd and perhaps raised his voice, to no avail. At this point, several members had stood up and were shaking their fists in indignation. The communist secretary was silenced by the livid patriotism displayed by these liberty-seeking visionaries.  

The founding fathers’ radical ideas in Pennsylvania, 1776, have rung loud and true across the vast ocean of political history, including in the subconscious presuppositions of trailblazing freedom fighters during the monumental parliamentary session in Kyiv, 1991. The path that the US Declaration of Independence paved was joyfully trodden down by the Ukrainian democratic leaders, some two hundred and fifteen years later. In both cases, the destiny and liberty of a nation hung in the balance. And what the brave patriots in America decided would not only affect the thirteen colonies but also two hundred foreign countries. In short, August of 1776—when the US Declaration was signed—has more to do with August of 1991—when Ukraine declared its independence in a ten-plus-hour parliamentary session—than one might expect. 

At eight minutes past twelve, outside the Ukrainian parliamentary meeting hall, a sea of angry protestors stood packed together in the blaring sun, some holding Ukrainian flags, and almost all chanting with enraged passion. The constant and overwhelming roar of the crowds was the sound of freedom banging at the locked door of communism. One deputy later recounted that no force would have stopped that mob. “They would have torn apart this Supreme Rada brick by brick,” he said. The American vice consul observed that the only thought on the communist leaders’ minds was “will it be possible to leave the building alive?” Communism was under siege, and the troops were the people, standing for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. While their passion was in full measure, this outrage could have merely degenerated into an angry protest and not a history-shaping victory for freedom. That is, if poet and politician Dmytro Pavlychko had not calmly and clearly presented the notion of independence on the parliament floor. Pulling from the same Enlightenment roots that inspired the US Declaration, Pavlychko boldly addressed the assembly with the words of Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. The Ukrainian poet focused the assembly on a few tasks, of which a declaration of complete independence was of the highest priority.  

Behind the profound and prudent words of these wise politicians was two hundred years of history, kick-started by the foundational words of the United States Declaration of Independence. As one historian put it, the “Declaration set forth a philosophy of human rights that could be applied not only to Americans but to people everywhere.” The inherent thought patterns of these European leaders were infused with the American ideals of inalienable rights and freedom. When patriot Levko Lukianenko scribbled the Ukrainian Declaration of Independence on his ordinary notebook the day before the parliamentary proceedings, his ideas were subtly shaped by the call of freedom baked into the American Declaration. When he wrote the words “the right of a nation to self-determination” in the document, the truths in the US Declaration were clearly revealed to be “self-evident”.  

At half past five, Dmytro Pavlychko walked up to the seated chairman, handed him the hurriedly printed copy of the hastily drafted declaration, and demanded: “Read!” In no hurry to vote on it, the chairman simply responded that he may bring it up on Monday. Knowing that the window of independence was small, and fueled with the same fire as the American founders, Pavlychko whispered, “If you don’t do this, I’ll kill you or smother you!” Roughly thirty minutes later, the chairman read the pithy but monumental Declaration of Independence of Ukraine aloud before putting it to a vote. After a tense silence for casting and tallying, it was official: the resolution passed with 346 votes! The deputies stood to their feet and applauded. Some even cried tears of joy. Freedom was theirs. The brave Ukrainian leaders had imitated their American counterparts in what the current president of Ukraine called “the greatest attempt in history to rid mankind of tyranny.” As the Kyiv Post later reported, “This was the final nail in the coffin for the Soviet Union. By the end of the month, after more than 70 years, the Soviet empire had ceased to exist.” 

Democracy had won in Kyiv, and they had Pennsylvania, in part, to thank.  

Joshua Paul from Anderson University authored this article as part of VOC’s Student Essay Contest.