Turning the pages back... August 26, 2001 (08/25/02)

Turning the pages back...

August 26, 2001

Last year, from August 18 to 26, Ukraine celebrated the 10th anniversary of its independence. Roman Woronowycz of our Kyiv Press Bureau covered the series of events marking that milestone. "For a 10th anniversary birthday bash, one day is not enough. Ukraine decided it needed a week to celebrate, and then did so with a flourish," wrote Mr. Woronowycz.

Following is information from his news story about the anniversary celebrations, which began August 18 with the opening of the Third World Forum of Ukrainians and ended on August 26 with a finale concert on Kyiv's European Square. The culmination of the celebrations, however, was on August 24 when nearly 50,000 residents of Kyiv came out onto the capital city's main thoroughfare, the Khreschatyk, to view the largest military parade in the country's decade of existence. At the anniversary parade, three foreign leaders - Russian President Vladimir Putin, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski - stood on the reviewing stand alongside Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma and much of the country's government and legislative leadership. Also on hand were delegations from several other countries, including Canada, the United States, China and Chile.

Minister of Defense Oleksander Kuzmuk gave the single address of the celebration, which was followed by the national anthem, the religious hymn "Bozhe Velykyi Yedynyi" and the release of hundreds of white doves into the bright blue sky. After that came more than 4,000 uniformed soldiers from the various branches of the armed forces, law enforcement agencies and many of the military academies and lyceums, followed by 300 pieces of military hardware, ranging from armored personnel carriers to Ukraine's state-of-the-art main battle tanks, T-84s, as well as thin-nosed Zenit series anti-ballistic missiles on carriers. A flyover of 42 various Ukrainian aircraft included MiG-29 fighter jets and the world's two largest airplanes, the AN-124 Ruslan and the AN-225 Mria. The finale included a daytime fireworks display, during which five Ukrainian blue-yellow standards appeared from a burst of pyrotechnics and floated downwards under miniature parachutes. Singers on parade floats, dancers, Olympic champions and young athletes, as well as representatives of Ukraine's many ethnic groups also were spotlighted in the parade.

Increasingly larger crowds, which reached more than 500,000, according to police estimates, filled the city center as the day continued, culminating in a series of rock and pop concerts throughout the city in the early evening hours and a huge fireworks salute to end the day's events.

A day earlier, Kyivans and visitors to the capital city witnessed the opening of the city's revamped Independence Square and the introduction of a new 62-meter column, atop which stands what state officials hope will be Ukraine's lady liberty. President Kuchma said in a short speech that he hoped that 10, 20 and even 100 years from now the statue would come to symbolize Ukrainian independence, democracy and liberty.

August 23 was an event-filled day for the president, beginning with a moleben at St. Sophia Sobor in the heart of Kyiv, and then followed by a prayer service at the St. Volodymyr the Great Monument overlooking the Dnipro River, and the placing of wreaths at memorials to Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine's bard, and Mykhailo Hrushevsky, the president of its first republic, as well as at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Next came a jubilee concert at the Ukraina Palace of Culture (Palats Ukrainy) concert hall. Mr. Kuchma gave a lengthy 50-minute discourse on Ukraine's accomplishments of the last 10 years and a delineation of what still needs to be done. He said that, in terms of its importance to the Ukrainian nation, the Act of Declaration of the Independence of Ukraine passed on August 24, 1991, could be compared to the christening of Kyivan Rus' in 988. He said that Ukrainian independence is "irreversible" and called the 10th anniversary "the end of the first and most difficult stage."

In another highlight of the week's commemorations, the same members of the Verkhovna Rada who had carried the large Ukrainian flag into the session hall 10 years ago when the Parliament voted to proclaim Ukraine's independence and to leave the Soviet Union re-enacted the historic event to mighty applause during a ceremonial session of the Verkhovna Rada.

A large portion of the Kyiv diplomatic corps, along with most of the past and present members of the Parliament, President Kuchma, Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh and his Cabinet, and Supreme Court and Constitutional Court judges were on hand to view the proceedings, which included an address by Rada Chairman Ivan Pliusch. The session also included the reading of a proclamation by National Deputy Ihor Yukhnovsky from the Verkhovna Rada to the parliaments of the world in which the Ukrainian legislature pledged to continue the development of parliamentarism and democracy in the country.

Source: "Ukraine celebrates 10th anniversary of its independence," by Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau, The Ukrainian Weekly, September 2, 2001, Vol. LXIX, No. 35.

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