On January 22, Ukrainians annually celebrate the Day of Unity, a holiday set in honour of the proclamation of First Independence and the Act of Zluka (Unification) of the UPR and WUPR.
Independence of Ukraine was proclaimed by the Fourth Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada in 1918, and a year later, on the same day, at the Sophia Square in Kyiv, the official unification of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic took place. “Henceforth, they merge together - parts of Ukraine which were for centuries torn apart - the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (Galicia, Bukovina, Hungarian Rus) and the Dnieper Greate Ukraine. The age-old dreams the best sons of Ukraine lived and died for have come true. Henceforth there is the united independent Ukrainian People's Republic."
In fact, exactly that day is Ukraine's Independence Day, not August 24, 1991. The second date can be considered as the Day of Independence Restoration after a long occupation. The unification talks were initiated by the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, in the face of its leaders. This initiative was not a spontaneous decision, because there was a unification movement that aimed at the Unity of the Ukrainian state.
During the Soviet regime, the Day of Unity was not celebrated and considered a "counter-revolutionary holiday," and all official references to it were thoroughly destroyed.
The first official and large-scale celebration took place in 1939, in the capital of the Carpathian Ukraine, the city of Khust. At that time, these lands were part of Czechoslovakia, and the Day of Unification became the largest mass event in Ukrainians life for 20 years. More than 30,000 Ukrainians attended the demonstration. In modern Ukraine, at the state level, this day was first celebrated in 1999 after a corresponding decree by President Leonid Kuchma.
Another interesting fact: in 2011, by decree of the fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, the Day of Unification on January 22 was cancelled officially. And it was restored in 2014 after Yanukovych's escape.
The Day of Unity of Ukraine: tradition
A living chain formed by patriotic Ukrainians decided to symbolically demonstrate state unity became the main tradition on the Day of Unity of Ukraine. In 1990 it stretched from Kyiv to Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, Stryi, Ternopil, Zhytomyr and
Rivne. Since the 2000s, a chain along the Paton Bridge, which runs between the Dnipro river right and left banks in Kyiv, has been organized annually in Kyiv, symbolizing the unification of East and West of Ukraine. Also in different cities of Ukraine arrange a symbolic living chain, in tribute to this holiday. Everyone who wants to get involved takes the state's yellow and blue flags and simply joins in, becoming part of the chain. A patriotic action will take place today in Kyiv on the day of the Unity of Ukraine in 2020 on the Paton Bridge.
