During the late 1980s it became clear that Russia was loosing it’s grip on the Soviet Union. In 1989 the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), which had been made illegal under Stalin, was agitating strongly for national independence. I thought this could be a good opportunity for picture story. I made contacts through UGCC representatives in London with people the ground in Ukraine and this made the story possible for me.
I picked up an assignment from the Independent Magazine and travelled to the Ukraine, via Moscow, in October 1989, in time to capture the UKCC’s emotional reclaiming of the Church of the Transfiguration in Lviv – this church had been occupied by the Russian Orthodox church since 1946. While in Donetsk in the east of the country I photographed at the Sots Donbas coal mine and at 21st Congress Collective Farm. In Kiev I covered the last ever October Revolution Day parade on the 7th November, two days before the Berlin Wall came down. I photographed in both colour and B&W on this story – the Independent ran the story on the church on the cover and inside in B&W. I’m showing the colour set here.
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