The head of the Institute of National Memory of Ukraine Volodymyr Vyatrovych summed up the decommunization policy in the country.
“We decided and decided for ourselves how to re-name or return the most ancient names to 52 thousand streets, 989 cities, 26 districts, and also to squares, mountains, rivers,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
According to Vyatrovich, decommunization is of great symbolic importance for Ukraine.
“We lived for a long time in a country whose names on the map were given by strangers. We lived as a guest. And only now we have returned home, ”Vyatrovich noted.
Recall that the law "On the condemnation of the communist and national-socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of propaganda of their symbols" was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on April 9, 2015. From that moment, a campaign began to change the names given in Soviet times.
So, for example, the city of Dnepropetrovsk, named after Grigory Petrovsky, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian SSR, was renamed the Dnieper. Kirovograd, in turn, began to bear the name of the Ukrainian playwright Mark Kropyvnytsky, Dzerzhinsk turned into Toretsk, and Dneprodzerzhinsk into Kamenskoye.
However, when renaming the authorities tried to avoid the return of pre-Soviet names associated with the Russian Empire. For example, until 1926, Dnepropetrovsk bore the name Yekaterinoslav in honor of Empress Catherine II, and Kirovograd was Elizavetgrad named after Empress Elizabeth.
In May 2019, then-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said that the decommunization process was "virtually completed."
Sluggish process
After Vladimir Zelensky came to power, the renaming of streets and cities ceased. In some cases, the reverse process began to be observed. So, in June, the Kiev District Administrative Court overturned the decision of the Kiev City Council on the assignment to Moscow Avenue and Vatutin Avenue of the names of leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-UPA) * Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. They were returned to their former names.
In June this year, the Kharkiv City Council returned Marshal Zhukov Avenue to the city map. In 2016, it was renamed, named in honor of the Soviet dissident Peter Grigorenko.
The President of the Center for System Analysis and Forecasting Rostislav Ishchenko believes that it is not necessary to draw conclusions on the basis of these facts that the process of decommunization has been reversed. The expert draws attention to the fact that the law "On the condemnation of the communist and national-socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of the propaganda of their symbolism" has not been repealed. Moreover, the Constitutional Court in July recognized its legitimacy.
- Portrait of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky
- Reuters
- © Valentyn Ogirenko
“The Institute of National Memory operates under Zelensky on the basis of the same legislation as under Poroshenko. This means that the policy of abandoning the Soviet past will continue, ”Ishchenko said in an interview with RT.
At the same time, he emphasized that the process of decommunization will no longer be so loud and noisy, since the symbolic names associated with the Soviet past of Ukraine have already been changed.
“It is impossible to decommunize something twice,” the political scientist noted.
A similar point of view was expressed by Konstantin Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries. In his opinion, the renaming of cities and settlements will continue, but "without the previous enthusiasm, which ended already under Poroshenko."
Experts emphasize that decommunization was closely linked to the course of distance from Russia. Vyatrovich himself spoke about this, claiming that, in fighting the Soviet legacy, the Ukrainian authorities are actually struggling with the influence of the “aggressor country”.
“Decommunization will take place in Ukraine, while people like Vladimir Vyatrovich will be in power. They are always happy to replace the difficult work of raising the economy and living standards of the population with the simple work of renaming cities, ”Zharikhin said in an interview with RT.
According to Ishchenko, Ukrainian fighters against the “legacy of communism” will not act so actively also because the current president is not interested in pedaling this topic.
“The process of decommunization cannot add political points to Zelensky. The new authorities, like the Ukrainian population, are more interested in the standard of living of the people and the problems of the economy, as well as the issue of ending the war, ”he said.
The lack of a request in society for the struggle against the communist legacy became noticeable already during the presidential and parliamentary elections, the expert noted.
“The topic of renaming streets and cities was practically not discussed during the election campaign. She was uninteresting to people. The teams of Poroshenko and Zelensky believed that this topic will not be able to significantly change their position in the elections, so they did not pay much attention to it, ”Ischenko said.
Zharikhin did not rule out that in the future Zelensky could cut off Vyatrovich’s powers, but the Institute of National Memory itself will remain. Ishchenko, in turn, recalled that this institution also worked under President Viktor Yanukovych, although at that time they tried to "use it for peaceful purposes."
“The best thing to count on is that Vyatrovich will someday be removed from office and a more sane person will be there,” Ishchenko concluded.
- Director of the Institute of National Memory Vladimir Vyatrovich
- © Volodymyr Viatrovych
Features of national decommunization
Experts note that the change of names that appeared during the years of the existence of communist regimes is not a purely Ukrainian invention.
“Decommunization is common to all post-communist countries. But the fact is that in Ukraine it takes such forms that already look quite ugly, ”Zharikhin said.
In turn, associate professor of the Department of Political Theory of MGIMO, Kirill Koktysh, calls another specific feature of Ukrainian decommunization: it took place without taking into account the opinion of the people.
“Ukrainian society no one asked about anything. There were no local referenda, there were only decisions of the authorities. How Ukrainians really feel about renaming and radical rhetoric is best judged by the results of Poroshenko’s election: he was the initiator of decommunization, ”he said in an interview with RT.
Experts draw attention to the fact that during the election campaign in Ukrainian society it was not the right nationalist rhetoric that was claimed, but, on the contrary, leftist ideas that some people associate with the Soviet past.
“Leftist moods in Ukraine are natural, as it is the poorest country in Europe,” Zharikhin believes.
At the same time, experts note that nationalist-minded radicals are still quite influential and the winding up of the decommunization policy is fraught with conflict with them. This Zelensky is unprofitable. However, according to Koktysh, if the Ukrainian president decides to revise the policy of decommunization, another scenario is possible.
“Since the radicals are only an instrument of domestic politics, they will not be allowed to play a central role in Ukraine. Moreover, in Ukrainian society, radical moods do not dominate. On the contrary, there is a strong request for normalization in all areas of life, ”the expert concluded.
* “Ukrainian Insurgent Army” (UPA) is a Ukrainian organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 11/17/2014).