Ukraine

I moved to Ukraine in June 1990, when it was still part of the Soviet Union. Just over a year later the Ukrainian parliament declared independence and the Soviet Union collapsed. Read more about this period in Picnic at the Iron Curtain or visit pages for Babyn Yar, Chernobyl, Crimea, Donbas, Kyiv, Odessa, Sevastopol, Ukrainian Independence and Vadym Boyko. Click on a picture for a slide show with captions.

Ukrainian friends often likened Cossacks to freedom fighters

I don't remember where I took this picture

Despite 70 years of communism religion remained a strong force

Grandmothers would still have grandchildren discretely baptized

Even though churches like the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

Were banned under Communism

The main religious groups in Ukraine include the Eastern Orthodox

The Catholics and the Protestants

In Communist times vegetables from garden plots provided important food

When state grocery store shelves were often bare

Village life could be difficult too

But no system could compromise the beauty of the Carpathian mountains

While Lenin statues dominated city squares

Soon after independence troops swore their allegiance to Ukraine

Rukh opposition leaders introduced the independence motion in parliament

That led to the end of communism in Ukraine

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