Ukrainian Independence Day

З Днем Незалежності України! = Z Dnem Nezalez︠h︡nosti Ukraïny! = Happy Ukrainian Independence Day! We have three books in the catalogue with the specific Library of Congress subject heading Ukraine–History–Independence proclamation, 1991 (August 24):

25 rokiv : zapovity nezalez︠h︡nosti Ukraïny / O.V. Savchenko [and others].
- a 177-page book of essays on Ukraine’s independence 25 years on.
25 rokiv nezalez︠h︡nosti : narysy istoriï tvorenni︠a︡ nat︠s︡iï ta derz︠h︡avy / vidpovidalʹnyĭ redaktor Valeriĭ Smoliĭ.
- 795 pages of analysis, published under the auspices of National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Ukrainian History.
- a PDF of the book is available on the Institute’s site here.
30 rokiv nezalez︠h︡nosti Ukraïny / Oleksandr Boĭko.
- a 2-volume monograph published to mark Ukraine’s 30th anniversary as an independent country, but with the first volume focused entirely on Ukraine prior to August 1991. This set was mentioned in an earlier blog post.

But we have hundreds more under the headings Ukraine–Politics and Government–1991- and Ukraine–History–1991-, many of which could arguably have the specific proclamation LCSH added.

You can see the text of the 1991 declaration on the Ukrainian government site here and the text in English translation on Wikipedia here. Russia was among the very first to recognise Ukraine’s independence, yet the 31st anniversary of independence comes exactly 6 months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country, with tens of thousands of lives lost and millions of lives thrown into fear and chaos. This is the 8th Independence Day that Ukraine has marked since Putin first ignored the 1991 declaration of independence that Boris Yeltsin, his own first champion, recognised, including its line “The territory of Ukraine is indivisible and inviolable” – since Putin’s “little green men” effected the illegal annexation of Crimea in early 2014.

Ukrainian Independence Day is therefore an event of happiness and grief, as well as great trepidation. Let us end this post with some book covers and other images used in previous blog posts that can help celebrate Ukraine and look forward to its peaceful future as a reunited country. The first image below is the beautiful ‘A dover has spread her wings and asks for peace’ by Marii︠a︡ Prymachenko, from this post.