{"id":159957,"date":"2026-08-24T07:46:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T04:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theukrainians.org\/nezalezhnist-oleksandra-hliadielova\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T16:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T13:16:23","slug":"oleksandr-glyadyelovs-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theukrainians.org\/en\/oleksandr-glyadyelovs-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Glyadyelov\u2019s Independence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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This article was created in partnership with the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the summer of 1989, Oleksandr Glyadyelov embarked on a new path \u2014 one he follows still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before that, he had worked as an optical engineer at the Institute for Strength of Materials in Kyiv, where he developed laser measurement systems. Among other things, he devised a circuit for a device that measures the speed of airflow over a helicopter rotor. When he finished, with his sense of duty fulfilled, he immediately wrote two letters: one requesting a vacation and the other requesting resignation. Photography began to take up more and more of his time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine, too, was about to embark on a new path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oleksandr Glyadyelov sums up both of these paths in a single word: \u201cFreedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newspapers and magazines (initially the ones based in Moscow) began reporting on the Soviet regime\u2019s mass repressions. Riding the wave of \u201cglasnost,\u201d the uncensored truth about the Chornobyl disaster came to light. Kyiv residents took to the streets in protests and hunger strikes, demanding democratic change and independence. Flags fluttered among the protesters: yellow-and-blue and red-and-black. People established civic associations and creative unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glyadyelov was a member of one such group \u2014 the photographers\u2019 collective called Pohliad [Ukrainian for \u201cgaze\u201d \u2014 Ed.]<\/em>, which became a hub where a new form of documentary photography and a contemporary way of commenting on reality took shape, in contrast to the old Soviet canons. The first exhibitions of this informal group were shut down by \u201cspecially trained people\u201d an hour or two after they opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBack in Soviet times, photographers would carry formal ties to put on harvester operators. Their photos were supposed to be ceremonial, exemplary, heralding new achievements and a bright future. They were meant to show only the very best of the Soviet people, culture, sports and nature,\u201d says Oleksandr. \u201cBut what we captured were the paradoxes of real life. For example, my colleague and one of the group\u2019s founders, Valerii Reshetnyak, who grew up in a village himself, took candid photographs of life in Ukrainian villages. He also documented adults living in dormitories \u2014 the so-called \u2018small-family units.\u2019 It was the unvarnished reality, not the permitted propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pohliad laid the foundation for independent Ukrainian photojournalism and focused on pressing social issues. Glyadyelov never parted with his camera again. The early years of Ukrainian independence were for him \u2014 as they were for the whole country \u2014 everything at once: a carnival, an explosion and poverty that spurred ingenuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere was a lot of theatrical, on-site activity. Artistic performances were staged, licensed CDs appeared in stores. Farmers who had previously dreamed of owning their own land were now setting out to farm it. Combine operators who switched from Kolos to John Deere said it felt like operating a spaceship. For many, independence was unexpected, but eventually it felt natural. People were trying out new ways of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oleksandr was no exception. At various times, he worked as a columnist, copywriter and photographer for a newspaper, but at a certain point, he decided that his personal freedom lay precisely in documentary photography \u2014 in the ability to work on something that endures over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His lens captured some of the first \u2014 after 50 years of censorship in the Soviet Union \u2014 commemorative events honoring those who were murdered in Bykivnia. People lay beneath the pine trees, killed without a name or a burial. Oleksandr photographed the plaques on the trees bearing the names of those who had been shot, and among the people who had come to commemorate their loved ones, he recognized a photographer he knew. He was lying there, leaning against a pine tree and weeping. Oleksandr lowered his camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Annual memorial event at the site of mass graves of Ukrainian victims of political repression. Bykivnia, 1994<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1992, the soldiers in the Ukrainian National Guard \u2014 at that time still a very young organization \u2014 were captured by Glyadyelov\u2019s lens: \u201cThe first iteration of our military was strong and pro-Ukrainian. Many officers of the Internal Troops, who had already taken part in conflicts within the Soviet Union, returned home when independence came. They all swore an oath to Ukraine.\u201d This version of the National Guard was disbanded in 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glyadyelov ran into his acquaintance, a colonel, among the protesters in the Orange Revolution. The colonel took him to his comrade, who unbuttoned his jacket to reveal a flag underneath: the National Guard soldier had kept it from those days. Oleksandr came to the rally as a citizen, outraged by election fraud and stayed as a photographer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1992, Glyadyelov photographed the war in Transnistria: \u201cI drove into the combat zone with the so-called Don Cossacks, who were dressed in the uniforms of the Russian Imperial Army, complete with epaulets and papakhas. Among them was a young man, about 18 years old, dressed as a midshipman in the Russian Imperial Navy, all in black.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he was documenting the war in Chechnya in 1996, he saw exactly what a war like that might look like in Ukraine: \u201cGrozny and Bakhmut \u2014 the same landscapes, cities destroyed in the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war that Glyadyelov has been photographing in Ukraine since 2014 is different from those he has seen elsewhere: \u201cA massive, all-out war the likes of which Europe hasn\u2019t seen since World War II. The scale and technology are unlike anything that has happened before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And at the same time, it fits into the logic of what Glyadyelov had previously experienced and documented: \u201cImperial consciousness did not disappear with the collapse of the Soviet Union and is being revived in all the new wars that Russia is waging. This is an empire that has been disintegrating since 1917, and I would very much like to see this process come to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oleksandr Glyadyelov\u2019s photographs have captured 35 years of change in the Ukrainian state. His archive preserves phenomena that have already become history: for example, homeless children who ended up on the streets due to economic collapse, domestic violence and government indifference; the HIV\/AIDS epidemic in Ukraine, which was successfully overcome thanks to advances in treatment and the efforts of civil society organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 35 years, Oleksandr Glyadyelov has been documenting one long story \u2014 a story about freedom and its price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The First Independence Day on Independence Square. Kyiv, 1992<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The First Independence Day on Independence Square. Kyiv, 1992
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Kyiv residents greet sailors before they take the oath of allegiance to Ukraine. National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Kyiv, January 1992<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Clashes between supporters of the Kyiv and Moscow Patriarchates near the Transfiguration Cathedral. Lutsk, August 1992
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On June 1, 1996, Ukraine sent the last shipment of nuclear warheads to Russia. In 1999, strategic aircraft \u2014 3 TU-95s and 8 TU-160s \u2014 were transferred to Russia as payment for gas debts. They were based, among other places, at the airfield in Uzyn. Russia used some of these aircraft to attack Ukrainian cities during the full-scale invasion. Uzyn, Kyiv Oblast, 1993<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A line at the dairy section of the former Moskovskyi grocery store in the former Moskovskyi (now Holosiivskyi) district. Kyiv, 1993
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A family that stayed in the exclusion zone. Narodychi District, 1996
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Journalists Taras Protsyuk (killed in Baghdad in 2003) and Rostyslav Khotyn at the Arizona BBQ restaurant. Kyiv, 1996<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A homeless boy, detained by the police, awaits transport to a distribution center. Kyiv, Khreshchatyk, September 1998<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The funeral of Vyacheslav Chornovil. March 29, 1999<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Berkut special forces units [riot police \u2014 Ed.] <\/em>hold back protesters during the Ukraine Without Kuchma rally. Kyiv, 2001<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lviv, 1999<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bakhchysarai, Crimea, 2004
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Protesters marching toward the Verkhovna Rada. Kyiv, 2004
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Protesters singing the national anthem on Independence Square. Kyiv, 2004<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A game of football in a courtyard in Pechersk. Kyiv, 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A man sleeps at a public transit stop with a Viktor Medvedchuk campaign poster in the background. Kyiv, 2012<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Protesters sing the national anthem as security forces retreat from Hrushevsky Street. Kyiv, February 20, 2014
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A burning barricade on Independence Square. Kyiv, February 19, 2014
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A fighter from the Donbas battalion, call sign Moroz, with his comrades-in-arms after clearing the village of Hrabske. He continues to defend Ukraine today in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. August 18, 2014
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Ukrainian mortar crews shell enemy positions near Ilovaisk. Mnohopillia, August 19, 2014
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Machine gunner Andriy after a firefight with his DShK at the Hnizdo position. Avdiivka, Promka district, 2019
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Retroville shopping mall after being struck by a Russian ballistic missile. March 2022
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Evacuation of civilians. Irpin, Romanivskyi Bridge, March 2022
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Vokzalna Street after liberation. Bucha, April 2022
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Exhumation at the Shakespeare Cemetery. Izyum, Kharkiv Oblast, September 2022
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Snihurivka, Mykolaiv Oblast. December 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A Ukrainian soldier heads to his position in the recently liberated village of Blahodatne. Donetsk Oblast. June 2023
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Zmiinyi (Snake) Island. August 2025
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Rehabilitation at the Superhumans Center. Lviv, April 2026
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Day Zero of the basic combat training course for the Personnel Training Battalion of the 1st Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine \u201cAzov.\u201d For many, this course marked the beginning of their combat career. June 2026
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Druzhkivka. February 2026

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Curators: Oleh Sosnov, Tetiana Lysun<\/p>\n

Photo Editors: Danylo Pavlov, Olha Kovalova<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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