On June 21 in Kyiv, the Ukrainian Catholic University will present a web archive of video materials called “The collapse of the Soviet Union: Oral History of Independent Ukraine 1988-1991.” The archive includes 72 interviews with political leaders, dissidents, diplomats, journalists, religious figures, businessmen, scholars, military men – participants or witnesses of arising of the independent Ukraine in 1988-1992.
The video interviews were recorded in six countries in 1995 and 1996. Among the interviewees are Leonid Kravchuk, Mikhail Gorbachov, Lech Wa??sa, James Baker, Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mustafa Dzemilev, Yevhen Marchuk, Yuriy Shcherbak, Vitaliy Korotych, Jacek Kuron, Vytautas Landsbergis, Serhiy Naboka, Ivan Plyushch, Myroslav Popovych, George Soros, Halyna Starovoytova, Stanislav Shushkevych, Anatoliy Zlenko and other prominent social and political figures.
Along with the presentation of the web archive (http://oralhistory.org.ua/), there will be a roundtable discussion with experts, authors and participants of the project “The Collapse of the Soviet Union: Oral history of Independent Ukraine 1988-1991.” In two sessions, the Ukrainian independence in retrospect (what was in 1991) and in prospect (what will be in 2021) will be discussed. Its participants will be Rev. Borys Gudziak, Ivan Hevko, Marharyta Hevko, Leonid Kravchuk, Myroslav Popovych, Yaroslav Hrytsak, Vitaliy Portnikov, Yuiy Shcherbak, Ivan Plyushch, Yevhen Marchuk and Myroslav Marynovych.
The project begins with the research of national movements and social organizations that were active in Ukraine in 1988-1989, then it covers the negotiations about signing a new union agreement in the summer of 1991, the Soviet coup d'état attempt of 1991, the rise of Boris Yeltsin in Moscow and the development of national sentiment in the republics, and finally Ukrainian independence.