2017-11-01
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Decommunisation in Ukraine.
What is decommunisation?
· the process of removing communism as the basis of a country's government and economy. (eg. Czechoslovakia, Poland, Baltic states, Caucasian states)
· ONLY PARTLY in the former USSR. Why? No decommunisation in Belorussia, half-and-half in Russia and Ukraine. What does it mean h-a-h? Some cities and streets have been renamed to their original versions. (Leningrad – St.Petersburg, Sverdlovsk – Yekaterinburg, Voroshilovgrad – Luhansk, Zhdanov – Mariupol). Not so many cities have been renamed (no big cities in Ukraine), mostly streets have been renamed. (Mostly in the Western Ukraine and the Russian metropolises Moscow and St.Petersburg).
· Only a few statues of Lenin and other Soviet monuments have been destroyed, one of them was in Kiev. Only in the Western Ukraine all communist titles have been renamed, but this was sort of phenomenon (could be described historically, as belonged to Austria and Poland before 1939, so have been out of Russian/Soviet reality and civil war), not the system.
The first wave of the decommunisation.
· There have been discussions about renaming of big Ukrainian cities Dnepropetrovsk and Kirovograd, named by communist figures Petrovskiy and Kirov. But according to approximately all surveys people were against renaming, because of pragmatic reasons. (Dnepropetrovsk and Kirovograd were Ukrainian industrial centres, so they have already been brands).
· There have been a discussion in Ukraine in 1990th about the new name of Sicheslav for Dnepropetrovsk, to commemorate it’s Cossack past, but society have been against this decision.
· Generally said, during Kuchma’s reign, there was a balance between all social and political groups in Ukraine. The State had denounced the majority of conflicts.
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Decommunisation after the Euromaydan 2014.
· The first “victim” of Euromaydan became the Lenin monument on Taras Shevchenko boulevard in Kiev. It was destroyed by protestants at night on the 8th December 2013.
· This was an accelerator of a Lenin-statues-demolishing wave, which was titled “Leninopad” (from verb “padaty”, which means “to fall”)
· Nearly in all Ukrainian cities and towns, local activists have destroyed Lenin statues. Sometimes there have been tensions in some Eastern Ukrainian cities in the very beginning of 2014. (Kharkov case).
· Meanwhile newly restored Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, headed by Volodymyr Vyatrovych, have started to create a series of laws-in-drafts about decommunisation, because there were no such laws in Ukraine.
o Volodymyr Vyatrovych hardly can be titled as the objective historian, whose historical interests are Ukrainian insurgent movements of WWII (UPA, 14th Waffen SS div. – Galizien), because in his works he usually keeps a distance from some negative aspects (Wolyn massacre and anti-Polish campaign).
· This laws have been adopted by Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) on the 31st March 2015. Totally there have been 4 laws, so let’s browse them.
Decommunisation Laws (ad. 31st March 2015)
· Law “On the Legal Status and Honouring of Fighters for Ukraine’s Independence in the Twentieth Century” (No. 314-VIII) [1]
o According to this law, a list of the Ukrainian institutions have became the subjects of fighting for the restoration of the Ukrainian independence. In this list, there are approximately 100 institutions and organisations, which have been in Ukraine from 1917 up to 1991. There are branches of the Ukrainian governments, parliaments, administrations, armies, etc. This list could be seen as neutral by all sides of the Ukrainian society, but two institutions have made this list very controversial. These institutions are: Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and SS division “Galizien”. This law have been highly criticised by Poland for two mentioned organisations.
o “Ukrainian nationals, foreigners and stateless persons who publicly express disrespect for those stipulated in Article 1 of this law … bear liability in accordance with current Ukrainian legislation. 2. Public denial of the legitimacy of the struggle for Ukraine’s independence in the XX century is deemed desecration of the memory of fighters for Ukraine’s independence in the XX century, denigration of the dignity of the Ukrainian people and is unlawful.”[2]
o What constitutes "disrespect" or "denigration" and who is to decide this? Are we to seriously believe that all research, for example, into the 1943 Volyn Massacre will remain unimpeded by such prohibitions? What if we strongly deny that the members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), implicated in such ethnic cleansing, were serving the cause of Ukraine’s independence? The same questions could be asked about all sorts of details from WWII, as well as earlier periods.[3]
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o The key factor of this law is to rehabilitate insurgents, who have fought against Soviets in WWII. Before 2015 they didn’t have the official status of combatants. After the adoption of the law, UPA veterans started to have the same rights as the Red Army veterans. UPA have mostly acted on the territories, which were annexed by the USSR in 1939. Because of collectivisation and repressions the Western Ukrainians have started to fight against the Soviets after the beginning of WWII. They can be considered as Fighters for Ukrainian independence by all aspects, but for modern Ukrainian society it was quite controversial, as UPA was seen like an evil by Soviet historiography and some Russian-Speaking Ukrainians from the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine.
o This law was a huge step away from common historical memory with Russia and former USSR republics.
· Law “On Memory Perpetuation of Victory Over Nazism in the Second World War 1939-1945” (No. 315-VIII). [4]
o New date for Ukraine, as in the former USSR republics (without Baltics), there is a separation of WWII and the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). GPW is considered to be a part of WWII, where the USSR took part.
o With this law, the 8th May became a holiday (The Day of Memory and Reconciliation)
o In this law Nazi Germany and Communist USSR have been blamed for the beginning of WWII.
o In all official documents, medias and literature term GPW was retitled to WWII.
o This law was a new step away from the common ex-USSR tradition.
· Law “On Access to Archives of Repression Institutions of the Communist Totalitarian Regime 1918-1991” (No. 316-VIII). [5]
o Some legal Soviet institutions have been marked as repressive. Everyone knows that CheKa and NKVD have been repressive institutions, but it was the first time in ex-USSR (don’t count Baltics), when archives have been opened to public.
o This is a big step forward, particularly when in Russian or Belorussia archives, opened in 1990th have been closed once more.
· Law “On Condemning the Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) Totalitarian Regimes and Prohibiting Propaganda of their Symbols”(No. 316-VIII).[6]
o The main law from the decommunisation laws kit, as it have equated Nazism to Communism. There are similar laws in Czechia and Poland from the end of 1989, but Ukrainian law was the first so kind law in ex-USSR (again not counting Baltics).
o According to this law ALL units, which have been titled in an honour of Communist leaders, Party members or somehow connected with communism must been renamed. All symbols of communism (UkrSSR coat of arms, sickle and hammers, monuments, etc.) must been demolished. Soviet propaganda music, anthems, flags and abbreviations were banned.
o There is only solo exception: only current communism-style state symbols, as PRC, North Korea or Vietnam are legal.
o The formidable list of proposed amendments to legislation listed at the end of the bill includes sentences of either restriction of liberty for up to five years or imprisonment for the same period for the preparation, circulation, and public use of communist or Nazi symbols. A repeated "offence” would carry a sentence of 5 – 10 years imprisonment.[7]
