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Onceaprotester,
alwaysaprotester
KATERYNAPRYSHCHEPA
TeUkrainianRevolutiononGranitebeganasastudent
demonstrationinearlyOctober1990.Itlastedalittleovertwo
weeksanddirectlyinvolvedslightlymorethan300people.
Unexpectedly,thislittle-knownstudenthungerstriketurned
outtobeoneofthemostremarkableeventsofthelateSoviet
period.ItsetablueprintforthefuturerevolutionsinUkraine.
OnOctober2nd1990agroupofstudents,mostlyfromLvivandKyivuniversities,
putuptentsinthecentralsquareofKyiv.AtthetimeitwasstillcalledtheSquare
oftheOctoberRevolution,nowitisknownasMaidanNezalezhnostiorMaidan
forshort.Testudentsinitiatedahungerprotest.Unknowinglytheyorganised
thefirstsuccessfulpeacefulrevolutioninthehistoryofpost-SovietUkraine.Tey
alsoaccidentallyestablishedatraditionofUkrainiantentprotestsonthesquare.
Teprotesthadthreemaincoordinators–MarkiyanIvashchyshyn(representing
Lviv),OlesDoniy(fromKyiv)andOlegBarkov(astudentofDneprodzerzhinskIn-
dustrialInstitute,representingtheeastofUkraine).Initially,therewere40students
andtheywerelaterjoinedbymanyothers.Whenplanningtheprotests,students
wereawareofthefacttheymightbearrested.Inresponse,theyorganisedatleast
fiveseparategroupsthatweretobesenttoKyiv,onebyone,sothatifonegroup
wasremoved,theprotestcouldstillcontinuewiththeotherones.Injusttwodays
around150studentswentonhungerstrike.Teywereaccompaniedbyabout130
otherparticipantswhoservedastheirguards,providinglogisticalandtechnical
support.TeprotestscontinuedtodrawevenmorepeopletoKyiv.Itincluded
MariaBurmaka–todayawell-knownUkrainiansinger,andbackthenastudent
