From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1991 Ukrainian independence referendum

none

Field	Value
country	Ukraine
flag_year	1991
date	1 December 1991
title	Do you support the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine?
image	1991 Ukrainian independence referendum results.png
caption	The result of the referendum in a bulletin.
yes	28,804,071
no	2,417,554
total	31,891,742
electorate	37,885,555
map	1991 Ukrainian independence referendum results.svg
mapdivision	region
map_caption	Results by region
Yes:

Yes:

A referendum on the Act of Declaration of Independence was held in Ukraine on 1 December 1991. An overwhelming majority of 92% of voters approved the declaration of independence made by the Verkhovna Rada on 24 August 1991. The public vote was held in response to the failed August coup and the New Union Treaty not being signed.

Voters were asked "Do you confirm the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine?" The text of the Declaration was included as a preamble to the question. The referendum was called by the Parliament of Ukraine to confirm the Act of Independence, which was adopted by the Parliament on 24 August 1991. Citizens of Ukraine expressed overwhelming support for independence. In the referendum, 31,891,742 registered voters (or 84.18% of the electorate) took part, and among them 28,804,071 (or 92.3%) voted "Yes".

On the same day, a presidential election took place. In the month up to the presidential election, all six candidates campaigned across Ukraine in favour of independence from the Soviet Union, and a "Yes" vote in the referendum. Leonid Kravchuk, the parliament chairman and de facto head of state, was elected to serve as the first President of Ukraine.

From 2 December 1991 onwards, Ukraine was globally recognized by other countries as an independent state. Also on 2 December, the President of the Russian SFSR Boris Yeltsin recognized Ukraine as independent. In a telegram of congratulations Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sent to Kravchuk soon after the referendum, Gorbachev included his hopes for close Ukrainian cooperation and understanding in "the formation of a union of sovereign states".

Ukraine was the second-most powerful republic in the Soviet Union both economically and politically (behind Russia), and its secession ended any realistic chance of Gorbachev keeping the USSR together. By December 1991 all former Soviet Republics except the RSFSR and the Kazakh SSR A week after his election, Kravchuk joined with Yeltsin and Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich in signing the Belavezha Accords, which declared that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. The USSR officially dissolved on 26 December.

Results

Ukrainian media had converted en masse to the independence ideal.

Polls showed 63% support for the "Yes" campaign in September 1991; that grew to 77% in the first week of October 1991 and 88% by mid-November 1991.

55% of the ethnic Russians in Ukraine voted for independence.

By region

The Act of Independence was supported by a majority of participating voters in each of the 27 administrative regions of Ukraine: 24 oblasts, 1 autonomous republic, and 2 special municipalities (Kyiv City and Sevastopol City). Voter turnout was lowest in Eastern and Southern Ukraine. The six regions with the lowest percentage of "yes" votes were Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Odesa Oblasts, Crimea, and Sevastopol; all of those regions still had a majority of registered voters marking their ballots "yes", except for Crimea and Sevastopol.

Subdivision	Percentage voting for independence	Of votes cast
Cherkasy Oblast	96.03	87
Chernihiv Oblast	93.74	85
Chernivtsi Oblast	92.78	81
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast	90.36	74
Donetsk Oblast	83.90	64
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast	98.42	94
Kharkiv Oblast	86.33	65
Kherson Oblast	90.13	75
Khmelnytskyi Oblast	96.30	90
Kirovohrad Oblast	93.88	83
Kyiv Oblast	95.52	84
Luhansk Oblast	83.86	68
Lviv Oblast	97.46	93
Mykolayiv Oblast	89.45	75
Odesa Oblast	85.38	64
Poltava Oblast	94.93	87
Rivne Oblast	95.96	89
Sumy Oblast	92.61	82
Ternopil Oblast	98.67	96
Transcarpathia Oblast	92.59	77
Vinnytsia Oblast	95.43	87
Volyn Oblast	96.32	90
Zaporizhzhia Oblast	90.66	73
Zhytomyr Oblast	95.06	86
Crimean ASSR	54.19	37
Kyiv City	92.87	75
Sevastopol City	57.07	36
National total	90.32	76

Analysis

Some experts claim that the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum was the most immediate event that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to Brian D. Taylor, in the aftermath of the failed 1991 Soviet coup attempt, most of the Soviet republics adopted declarations of independence, the most important of which was that of Ukraine. By the end of September, eight republics had declared independence: Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Tajikistan and Armenia. These declarations of independence were largely symbolic and did not mean withdrawal from the union. Negotiations on the union continued for several months, but in the end, in the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum, more than 90 per cent of Ukrainians voted for independence. Almost all observers agreed that serious federal discussions were impossible without Ukraine's participation. On 6 December, shortly after Ukraine's independence referendum, the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine adopted a new military oath pledging loyalty to Ukraine. On 13 December, Leonid Kravchuk proclaimed himself Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and declared that the Ukrainian Armed Forces would be formed from Soviet troops stationed in Ukraine.

According to Mark Kramer, Boris Yeltsin often expressed his willingness to accept the independence of the Baltic states and Georgia and Moldova, but wanted to preserve the Union. What deprived Yeltsin of this option was the surge of independence sentiment in Ukraine after the coup attempt. Following the successful independence referendum, Yeltsin's only way to preserve the Soviet Union would have been to use massive force against Ukraine. However, Yeltsin chose not to and instead recognised the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and joined the Belovezha Accords and the Alma-Ata Protocol.

According to Adrian Karatnycky, although Yeltsin thwarted the coup and brought down the Soviet Communist Party, it was Kravchuk and Ukraine that ultimately brought down the Soviet Union. Ukraine's rejection of Mikhail Gorbachev's Union Treaty led to the immediate collapse of the Soviet Union.

According to Peter J. Potichnyj, Yeltsin and Gorbachev consistently sabotaged Ukraine's independence. However, because the referendum was conducted in an open and democratic manner, it convinced Russia and world leaders that the Soviet system was no longer viable or sustainable.

According to Laura Blaj, the Ukrainian Communist Party rejected the Soviet reforms of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. This was a decisive factor in Ukraine's overwhelmingly positive vote. The Communist conservatives were allied with Ukrainian nationalists and the result of the Ukrainian referendum therefore led directly to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

References

[[Dieter Nohlen]] & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', page 1976 {{ISBN. 9783832956097
Nohlen & Stöver, p1985
[http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1991/359102.shtml Historic vote for independence] {{Webarchive. link. (2014-03-23 , ''[[The Ukrainian Weekly]]'' (1 September 1991))
[http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1991/499101.shtml Independence – over 90% vote yes in referendum; Kravchuk elected president of Ukraine] {{Webarchive. link. (2017-10-19 , ''[[The Ukrainian Weekly]]'' (8 December 1991))
0742510182 (page 100)
9780774804387 (page 371)
link. (2024-08-20 by [[Roman Szporluk]], [[Hoover Institution Press]], 2000, {{ISBN). 0817995420 (page 355
link. (2024-08-20 by [[Gordon M. Hahn]], [[Transaction Publishers]], 2001, {{ISBN). 0765800497 (page 482)
[https://history.state.gov/countries/ukraine A Guide to the United States' History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Ukraine] {{Webarchive. link. (2009-02-04 , [[Office of the Historian]])
link. (2024-08-20 by [[James E. Goodby]] and [[Benoit Morel]], [[Oxford University Press]], 1993, {{ISBN). 0198291612 (page 48)
[https://web.archive.org/web/20211031073836/http://wnu-ukraine.com/about-ukraine/history/ukrainian-independence Ukrainian Independence], [[Worldwide News Ukraine]]
[http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1991/499103.shtml NEWSBRIEFS FROM UKRAINE] {{Webarchive. link. (2020-11-16 , ''[[The Ukrainian Weekly]]'' (8 December 1991))
0521587379 (page 240)
0415596041 (page 101)
0810854759 (page 75)
1851098852 (page 111)
Andrew Wilson]], [[Cambridge University Press]], 1996, {{ISBN. 0521574579 (page 128)
link. (2024-08-20 by [[Daniel Treisman]], [[Free Press (publisher)). Free Press]], 2012, {{ISBN. 1416560726 (page 178)
Andrew Wilson]], [[Cambridge University Press]], 1996, {{ISBN. 0521574579 (page 129)
link. (2023-01-13 by Pål Kolstø, [[Indiana University Press]], 1995, {{ISBN). link. (2023-01-13 by Serhii Plokhy, [[University of Toronto Press]], 2008, {{ISBN). 978-0-8020-9327-1 (page 184)
link. (2023-12-16 by [[Bohdan Harasymiw]], [[Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies]], 2002, {{ISBN). 1895571448
Brian D. Taylor, "[[doi:10.1162/152039703320996713. The Soviet Military and the Disintegration of the USSR]]." Journal of Cold War Studies 5.1 (2003) 56-58. https://doi.org/10.1162/152039703320996713
Mark Kramer, "[[doi:10.2307/1520339. The reform of the Soviet system and the demise of the Soviet state]]." Slavic Review 63.3 (2004) 507. https://doi.org/10.2307/1520339
Mark Kramer (2022) [[doi:10.1162/jcws_a_01059. The Dissolution of the Soviet Union: A Case Study of Discontinuous Change]], Journal of Cold War Studies, 24 (1):206, 214. https://doi.org/10.1162/jcws_a_01059
Adrian Karatnycky, "[[doi:10.2307/20045232. The Ukrainian Factor]]", Foreign Affairs, 71.3 (1992), p.90. https://doi.org/10.2307/20045232
Peter J. Potichnyj, "[[doi:10.1080/00085006.1991.11091956. The Referendum and Presidential Elections in Ukraine]]", Canadian Slavonic Papers, 33:2, (1991) 123~4, 127, 128~129, 132. https://doi.org/10.1080/00085006.1991.11091956
Laura Blaj, "[[doi:10.1080/0965156X.2013.841797. Ukraine’s Independence and Its Geostrategic Impact in Eastern Europe]]", Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 21.2-3 (2013) 165. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965156X.2013.841797

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

referendums-in-ukraine independence-referendums 1991-referendums 1989–1991-ukrainian-revolution 1991-elections-in-ukraine 1991-in-the-soviet-union 1991-in-international-relations referendums-in-the-soviet-union dissolution-of-the-soviet-union ukrainian-independence-movement december-1991-in-europe

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report