Protests against the russian Orthodox Church, 1990

1990, autumn, Kyiv.

The video shows a mass protest in the city centre against Moscow's attempts to establish control over St. Sophia Cathedral. St. Sophia Cathedral, protesters with flags, banners and placards, police.

Comments: Serhiy Dovgal, delegate of the People's Movement of Ukraine, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Society of the Ukrainian Language; Tetiana Redyuk, deputy of the Rivne City Council; Dmytro Pavlychko, poet of the 1960s, Hero of Ukraine; Mykola Porovskyi, People's Deputy; clergyman; Kyiv residents.

Reference: On 28 October 1990, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow arrived in Kyiv. In St. Sophia Cathedral, he solemnly announced the decision of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church and presented Metropolitan Filaret with the Tomos of ‘autonomy and independence in governance’ of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

In fact, the ‘autonomy’ of the UOC granted by Moscow did not mean complete independence — the church remained under the canonical and administrative dependence of the Russian Orthodox Church. Researchers believe that this decision was more of a political move: it was intended to mask the ROC's unwillingness to grant true autocephaly and to preserve Moscow's influence on church life in Ukraine. Thus, the formal expansion of the UOC's rights was accompanied by the actual preservation of control through canonical ties and the participation of church representatives in the structures of the ROC.