Death and funeral of Patriarch Volodymyr of Kyiv

Death and funeral of Patriarch Volodymyr of Kyiv
Date	18 July 1995 (1995-07-18)
Location	Sophia Square, Kyiv, Ukraine 50°27′10.8″N 30°30′55.39″E
Goals	Burial of Volodymyr Romaniuk in Saint Sophia Cathedral
Concessions	Romaniuk buried in Sophia Square
Parties
Ministry of Internal Affairs Berkut Internal Troops of Ukraine Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate Ukrainian People's Self-Defence
Lead figures
Yuriy Kravchenko Filaret Denysenko Oleksandr Muzychko
Casualties and losses
35 injured 25 injured 2 dead (claimed by UNSO)

Patriarch Volodymyr Romaniuk of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate died on 14 July 1995. His funeral subsequently turned into a riot, popularly known as Black Tuesday (Ukrainian: чорний вівторок, romanized: chornyi vivtorok), after members of the Berkut special police force began attacking mourners, with members of the far-right Ukrainian People's Self-Defence attacking members of the security forces. It was the first incident of police attacking a peaceful gathering in the history of Ukraine since 1991.

Background

Volodymyr Romaniuk was patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate from its founding until his death on 14 July 1995. Prior to that, he had been a bishop of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and before that a political prisoner associated with the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. The establishment of the UOC–KP, an autocephalous (albeit unrecognised) Eastern Orthodox church in Ukraine, was a significant source of national pride for Ukrainians following independence, though it was significantly outnumbered by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) in terms of believers and parishes.

Following the former's establishment, the UOC–KP and UOC (MP) had been involved in a bitter struggle over control of Ukraine's dominant religious sites. The struggle soon came to involve the political scene; President Leonid Kravchuk was a supporter of the UOC–KP, while Prime Minister and later President Leonid Kuchma backed the UOC(MP). Kravchuk initially promised Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv to the UOC–KP, but following Kuchma's 1994 election as president, these plans fell through.

The exact circumstances of Romaniuk's death are unclear and a matter of some dispute; officially ruled as a heart attack, several Ukrainian nationalists, among them politician Roman Zvarych, have claimed that the circumstances of Romaniuk's death were violent, contrary to autopsy reports.

Funeral

UOC–KP leadership initially intended for Romaniuk to be buried in Baikove Cemetery. However, they later changed their mind, determining that, as the first Patriarch of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox church, he would be buried at Saint Sophia Cathedral. The government rejected these plans, citing the last-minute nature and the need for technical studies of the cathedral before such an act could be allowed. After four days of negotiations (with which most high-ranking officials were uninvolved), and with summer heat causing the Patriarch's body to decay, the UOC–KP agreed not to bury him at Saint Sophia Cathedral.

The funeral took place in Sophia Square on 18 July 1995. According to Prime Minister Yevhen Marchuk, the decision to travel to Sophia Square rather than Baikove Cemetery had been made spontaneously by former President Leonid Kravchuk and People's Deputy Mykola Porovskyi, who were leading the procession. During the funeral, the cathedral was guarded by officers of the Berkut special police force in order to prevent Volodymyr's body from entering. The far-right Ukrainian People's Self-Defence (UNSO) paramilitary, which Romaniuk had been previously affiliated with before later leaving, was also present at the funeral, and carried the casket.

Riot

UNSO and UOC–KP members, seeing the police presence at Saint Sophia Cathedral, were enraged by the effort to keep them from the cathedral, and mourners began hammering the asphalt in Sophia Square, near the bell tower. In response, Berkut began attacking mourners with tear gas and clubs in what police general Valery Budnikov later claimed was an effort to prevent sacrilege against the patriarch. Responding to the violence, UNSO members began attacking Berkut, leading to a full-fledged riot.

As a result of the clashes, 35 members of the Ukrainian security forces were injured, while 25 mourners were injured and several were arrested. According to the UNSO, two of their members were killed.

Other individuals involved, such as pro-democracy leader Viacheslav Chornovil and journalist Vitaliy Karpenko, tried to prevent violence and continue the burial. The Berkut did not make any attempts to remove Romaniuk's coffin from the makeshift grave once it had already been dug.

Aftermath

The riot following Romaniuk's funeral quickly became a political headache for Kuchma, who was attending a state visit to Belarus during the incident. Kuchma waited for ten days before ultimately condemning police conduct during the burial in a low-key press conference, which ultimately cost him support. The government also accused the UNSO of being responsible for starting violence. The funeral became a political issue during the 1999 Ukrainian presidential election, with candidate Yevhen Marchuk claiming the government had cooperated with foreign actors to orchestrate the event, thus decreasing support for the UOC–KP.

More broadly, the funeral riots demonstrated competing visions of Ukraine's national identity between those who favoured and those who opposed closer ties with Russia. The conflict between the UOC–KP and UOC (MP) was questioned in news media, such as The Washington Post, following the incident.