Date of Event: October 2-18, 1990
October 2 – Dissatisfied with 1990 Parliamentary Election results, Oles Doniy & Markiyan Ivashchyshyn began a protest at the Maidan. Along with them, 40 activists from Kyiv’s Student Union of Ukraine and Lviv’s Student Brotherhood set up camp and demanded radical democratic reforms. These included, but were not limited to the nationalization of Communist property, the resignation of PM Vitaliy Masol, and early parliamentary elections.
October 3 – Number of protesters grows to 10,000
October 4 – Protesters officially declare a hunger strike
October 7 – Ukrainian S.S.R. adopts resolution that partially meets protesters’ demands
October 9 – Protesters reject resolution and continue strike
October 10-15 – Escalation of protests ; mass rallies occur, streets are blocked ; students in Kyiv’s colleges and schools began strike
October 15 – 100,000 students take to the streets to march on Verkhovna Rada and they set up a second camp there ; few thousand students occupied buildings at Kyiv University and a Polytechnical University ; authorities provided student reps with broadcast, where they explained their demands and called for an all-Ukraine strike
October 17 – Realizing the protesters’ widespread support, the Ukrainian SSR passed another resolution that dismissed PM Vitaly Masol, postponed the signing of a new union treaty between the USSR Republics, and promised to: hold new elections, create a commission that would deal with nationalizing Communist property, and end compulsory military service
October 18 – Oles Doniy & Markiyan Ivashchyshyn announce the end of the hunger strike. After, the protesters dismantled their tents and relinquished control of the University buildings.
Works Cited:
O’Connor, Coilin, and Halyna Tereshchuk. “The Revolution on Granite: Ukraine’s ‘First Maidan.’” RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, October 15, 2020. https://www.rferl.org/a/the-revolution-on-granite-ukraine-s-first-maidan-kyiv/30892599.html.
Revolution on Granite. Accessed December 7, 2023. https://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CR%5CE%5CRevolutiononGranite.htm.
“32 Years of the Revolution on Granite.” We Are Ukraine, October 4, 2022. https://www.weareukraine.info/32-years-of-the-revolution-on-granite/.