Over the course of the year 1989, a
peaceful revolution began in Ukraine, aimed at implementing
Gorbachev’s programme of
perestroika,
glasnost and
democratisation, plus a number of demands specific to the
national-democratic movement, including increased autonomy and self-determination for Ukraine. The formation of the
People's Movement of Ukraine (
Rukh) was proposed in February 1989, and finally formalised at the founding congress of 8–10 September 1989 as the first non-communist party in Ukraine, in opposition to the ruling
Communist Party of Ukraine. The Student Society of Lviv was founded on 25 May 1989, while the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Student Union was launched in August 1989. The student groups, who generally supported Rukh, were deeply disappointed with the results of the March
1990 Ukrainian parliamentary election. Although an increasing number of people were leaving the Communist Party and forming dozens of progressive-communist factions that wished to cooperate with the national democrats, the conservative communists retained a narrow majority of 239 seats (53%), thus obstructing many legislative reforms demanded by the democratic opposition. At a Rukh conference, student leader
Oles Donii declared that the democrats ought to win a majority in the next elections to really change things. The Student Union then began preparations for a large-scale protest, which was to become known as the Revolution on Granite. Meanwhile in Parliament, a brief consensus emerged when the
Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine was adopted almost unanymously on 16 July 1990. But the Group of 239 conservative communists was steering towards approval of the
New Union Treaty proposed by Gorbachev. The opposition denounced this as the Soviet empire in disguise, arguing Ukraine needed achieve full independence, as well as protect its domestic market. The Democratic Bloc called for a national strike to be held on 1 October 1990 in front of the Parliament in Kyiv to oppose the New Union Treaty. Reportedly, up to 1 million people from Kyiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Ternopil participated in the strike, opposing the Treaty, while demanding the Declaration of State Sovereignty to be granted the status of constitutional law, and nationalising Soviet state enterprises, amongst other things. == Course ==