The Ukrainian sovereignty referendum was conducted on March 17, 1991, as part of the first and only Soviet Union referendum. Throughout the

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

, voters were asked two questions on remaining part of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

New Union Treaty The New Union Treaty (russian: link=no, Новый союзный договор, Novyy soyuznyy dogovor) was a draft treaty that would have replaced the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSR to salvage and reform the Soviet Union. A ceremony ...

terms. Most voters supported the proposal, however, in the pro-independence

Oblasts An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdom o ...

of Ivano-Frankivsk,

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

, and

Ternopil Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Ternopi ...

, voters opted for independence as part of an additional question. The referendum followed the

Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine The Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine ( uk, Декларація про державний суверенітет України, translit=Deklaratsiia pro derzhavnyi suvernitet Ukrainy) was adopted on July 16, 1990, by the recently ele ...

by the republic's parliament on July 16, 1990, as sovereign republic within the

, in line with the results. In August 1991, with the

having not been adopted by the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, the withdrawal from the Soviet Union was proposed. The overwhelming majority of voters backed the idea in another referendum in December, approving a

declaration of independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...

Republic-wide

Throughout the entire

, citizens were first asked:

Do you consider necessary the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics in which the rights and freedom of an individual of any nationality will be fully guaranteed?

A boycott campaign reduced the ''against'' votes in

Western Ukraine Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austria ...

. The Ukrainian SSR included an additional question for all of the republic's citizens; the voters were asked:

Do you agree that Ukraine should be part of a Union of Soviet Sovereign States on the basis on the
Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine The Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine ( uk, Декларація про державний суверенітет України, translit=Deklaratsiia pro derzhavnyi suvernitet Ukrainy) was adopted on July 16, 1990, by the recently ele ...
?

Provincial

Galician referendum in Ukrainian SSR in 1991

In the Galician

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Ivano-Frankivsk,

, and

, voters were asked an additional question regarding the creation of an independent state of Ukraine:The Ukrainian West: Culture and the Fate of Empire in Soviet Lviv
by William Jay Risch,

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

, 2011, , (page 4)

Would you like Ukraine became an independent state, which can independently decide all questions of domestic and foreign policy, providing equal rights to citizens regardless of nationality and religious views?

References

{{1991 Independence of Ukraine 1991 elections in Ukraine 1991 in international relations 1991 in the Soviet Union

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Dissolution of the Soviet Union March 1991 events in Europe Referendums in the Soviet Union Referendums in Ukraine

Ukrainian independence movement