This January 21 marked 30 years since half a million smiling, flag-waving and independence-seeking people joined hands across the 300 miles between Kyiv and Lviv. Organized by Narodnyi Rukh Ukrayiny (the People’s Movement of Ukraine) when the country still suffered under the yoke of Soviet oppression, Ukrainian activists from across this largest country in Europe managed to inspire enough of their countrymen to come out for a peaceful demonstration of national unity and pride to demonstrate the national will “for a united, independent Ukraine.” At one end of the chain, Kyiv residents began their section from St. Sophia's Square; winding for kilometers out of the city and westward, thousands of  youth and elderly, Catholics and Orthodox, ethnic Ukrainians, Jews, Poles and others linked themselves through the streets of Zhytomyr, Rivne, Ternopil, and Ivano-Frankivsk. In the end, these activists managed to physically link Lviv, capital of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic (ZUNR) and Kyiv, capital of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UNR), on the 71st anniversary of the 1919 “Act of Union” (Akt Zluky), when Ukrainians last united as a single sovereign and independent state.

Inspired by the highly successful Baltic Way human chain of 1989, 1990’s zhyvyi lantsiuh (human chain) was also marked by the widespread use of Ukrainian national symbolism by the participants: waving the blue and yellow flag, proudly displaying the banned tryzub, and singing Ukrainian songs.

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), the largest representation of Americans of Ukrainian descent, continues the decades-long Ukrainian-American legacy of marking the 1919 “Act of Union” (Akt Zluky) along with this significant moment in history – Unity Day – recognized in 1999 as a national holiday in Ukraine. UCCA honors the activism of those everyday citizens whose simple act of handholding came to symbolize the democratic ideal Ukrainians continue to fight for to this day.