Rally on Sophia Square, 1990

1990, autumn, Kyiv.

The video shows two sides of the rally: those in support of a new union treaty with Moscow and those in support of an independent Ukraine. Pro-Ukrainian participants shout ‘Shame!’ and ‘Fascists,’ clashes between protesters, a blocked street, clashes with the police, protesters talking to police officers, St. Sophia Cathedral, people buying food on the street, Sophia Square, monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsky, flags of the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR on the building of the State Security Committee of the Ukrainian SSR, march of pro-Ukrainian protesters shouting ‘Shame on the idolaters,’ bust of Taras Shevchenko.

Reference: In the autumn of 1990, Moscow tried to impose a new union treaty on the republics, which in fact contradicted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine and caused a wave of protests. Despite economic and political pressure from the Kremlin, the opposition movement in Ukraine grew stronger.