Oles Doniy was one of the student leaders of the Revolution on Granite and represented Kyiv. He attended Kyiv National University from 1986 to 1991 and studied history. He was the head of the Ukrainian Students Union and compiled the first three demands of the revolution, the reelection of parliament, the nationalization of the property of the communist party, and a new union agreement. Doniy worked alongside the leaders of Students Brotherhood of Lviv to compile the demands of the revolution, which, as he describes, was done without argument. Doniy continued his leadership as the revolution progressed, and on October 15, 1990, he presented the students demands to parliament, and the protests ended victoriously two days later.
After the Revolution on Granite, Doniy participated in Ukraine’s two other revolutions, the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity. He also continued his political career in the Ukrainian National Parliament as a People’s Deputy of Ukraine. He ran for the Verkhovna Rada of all convocations from the 3rd in 1998 to the 9th in 2019. He served on the “Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense” block list in the sixth and seventh convocations which lasted from 2007 to 2012 and 2012 to 2014 respectively. Additionally he served in the Kyiv City Council as deputy chairman of the Commission on Humanitarian Affairs. In 2010, Doniy became Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Affairs for the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc opposition government. He was beaten in the Verkhovna Rada on April 27th, 2010, during the ratification of the Kharkiv Agreements and was hospitalized for several months. He supported Petro Poroshenko before his 2014 election but later became a strong opposition for the Ukrainian president.
He is currently a member of the center-right party, Movement of New Forces. In February of 2015, Doniy spoke out as an Ex-Deputy of Ukraine, saying the decision to repeal members of parliament’s immunity would not make them more responsible. He said that among the deputies there were little principles and that there was still no mechanism by which to punish them. He believed this would awaken the public to the reality of the situation in parliament.
In the present day, Doniy regularly publishes pieces about Ukrainian culture, politics and history for non-profit organizations and newspapers including Unian and Hromada. He also regularly publishes many videos in Ukrainian on Youtube where he shares his thoughts on the Ukrainian national idea, including “25 Steps to Public Happiness” He is the head of art association Ostannya Barykada (the last barricade) which is self described as a “artistic and gastronomic space” and the first 100% Ukrainian bar. Ostannya Karykada is dedicated as a meeting place for free thinkers and the new generation born out of the three revolutions (The Revolution of Granite, the October Revolution, and the Revolution of Dignity). Doniy is also the head of the Center for Research of Political Values in Kyiv.