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Soviet Union [USSR] Ukrainians
National assertiveness was awakened much more slowly in the
Ukrainian Republic. Although Gorbachev seemed willing to grant
extensive concessions to the small Baltic nationalities, he was
much less inclined to allow them for the much more numerous
Ukrainians, whose natural, agricultural, and industrial resources
have been so vital to the Soviet Union and whose size has
contributed significantly to the country's large Slavic majority.
The Ukrainian nationalist movement severely threatened the state,
and Soviet authorities have used harsh measures against Ukrainian
national and religious leaders. Nevertheless, a democratic national
movement gained momentum in the late 1980s. It was particularly
strong in the western regions of the Ukrainian Republic, where the
population had not been exposed as long to a policy of
Russification as had the people of the eastern regions of the
Ukrainian Republic. A democratic front with a program similar to
the Baltic popular fronts, a Ukrainian cultural club to preserve
Ukrainian culture and history, and an ecological movement have been
formed and have gained an increasing following. The crucial issue
for Ukrainians in the late 1980s was the use of the Ukrainian
language as the official language of the republic and as the
language of instruction in the republic's schools. Ukrainians
raised demands for transforming the Soviet Union into a voluntary
confederation of free republics.
Another important development in the Ukrainian Republic was the
revived activity of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Several bishops
and clergy and thousands of believers of the illegal church
appealed to the Supreme Soviet in 1988 for the church's
legalization. Also, clergy and thousands of faithful began to defy
the authorities by holding open religious services.
Data as of May 1989
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