1991 Ukrainian sovereignty referendum

1991 Ukrainian sovereignty referendum

17 March 1991 (1991-03-17)

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?
Results
Choice
Votes %
Yes 25,224,687 81.69%
No 5,655,701 18.31%
Valid votes 30,880,388 98.14%
Invalid or blank votes 584,703 1.86%
Total votes 31,465,091 100.00%
Registered voters/turnout 37,689,767 83.48%
Map of voting
Voter invitation

A sovereignty referendum was held in the Ukrainian SSR on 17 March 1991 as part of a USSR-wide referendum. Voters were asked two questions on reforming the Soviet Union into a confederation of sovereign states. Most voters supported the proposal, although in the pro-independence oblasts of Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Ternopil, voters opted for independence as part of an additional question.

The referendum followed the Declaration of State Sovereignty by the republic's parliament on 16 July 1990 as sovereign republic within the Soviet Union in line with the results.[1]

In August 1991, with the New Union Treaty having not been adopted by the Soviet Union, a withdrawal from the USSR was proposed. The overwhelming majority of voters backed the idea in an independence referendum in December, approving a declaration of independence.[2]

  1. ^ How Ukraine Became a Market Economy and Democracy by Anders Åslund, Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2009, ISBN 978-0-88132-427-3 (page 21)
  2. ^ Independence – over 90% vote yes in referendum; Kravchuk elected president of Ukraine Archived 2017-10-19 at the Wayback Machine, The Ukrainian Weekly (8 December 1991)

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