Limited process of the removal of communist symbols
The façade of the Grand Kremlin Palace was restored to its original form after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. The State Emblem of the USSR and the embedded letters forming the abbreviation of the USSR (CCCP) were both removed and replaced by five Russian double-headed eagles. An additional restoration of the coat of arms of the various territories of the Russian Empire were placed above the eagles.
Decommunization in Russia is the process of dealing with the communist legacies in terms of institutions and personnel that tends towards breaking with the Soviet past. Compared with the decommunization efforts of the other former constituents of the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union, it has been restricted to half-measures, if conducted at all.[1]
A number of public figures and organizations (for example, the political party "PARNAS") have advocated for measures of decommunization[3] and holding the organizers and enforcers of totalitarian policies accountable. According to public figure Andrey Zubov, decommunization should be carried out by analogy with denazification, with destalinization being a specific element of this process.[4] The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, referring to Lenin as "the chief persecutor and tormentor of the 20th century," called for the removal of his body from Red Square and the liberation of settlements from Lenin monuments.[5] According to polls, there is a general consensus among the Russian people that further or complete decommunization should be carried out only after the Soviet-era generations have died, with actions such as the removal of the Lenin Mausoleum and the burial of Lenin's body.[6][7][8]
Conversely, the Spasskaya Tower had kept its red star and did not restore the two-headed eagle present before communist takeover. Nonetheless, there have been numerous calls to take such action.
On 23 August 1991, two days after the failure of the August Coup, Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspended the existence of the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR, pending investigation of its role in the recent events. This decision was taken over the objections of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who insisted that the Party as a whole was not to blame.[10] The Communist Party Regional committees (obkom) in the Russian SFSR were closed, and the building of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the Old Square in Moscow was sealed.
The following day, on 24 August 1991, Gorbachev dissolved the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and resigned as its Secretary General while remaining President of the Soviet Union. On 25 August, Yeltsin issued another decree nationalizing the property of the Communist Party, including its archives and bank accounts, and transferring their control to the RSFSR Council of Ministers.[11]
Within a few weeks after the coup, the Soviet Union peacefully broke up. On 6 November 1991, Yeltsin banned the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), which had exercised pervasive control over Russian society for years.[12] The breakup of the Soviet Union was acknowledged in the Belavezha Accords of 8 December, ratified by the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR on 12 December. On 26 December 1991, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was declared. Its largest constituent republic, the Russian SFSR, was renamed the Russian Federation. It was formally established on 1 January 1992 and became the legal successor state of the Soviet Union.
Coup investigation, 1991–1992
The Parliamentary Commission for Investigating Causes and Reasons of the coup attempt was established in 1991 under Lev Ponomaryov (including also Gleb Yakunin), but in 1992 it was dissolved at Ruslan Khasbulatov's insistence. Having gained access to secret KGB archives as a member of the committee, in March 1992, Gleb Yakunin published materials about co-operation of the Moscow Patriarchate with KGB. He claimed that Patriarch Alexius II, Mitropolit Filaret of Kiev, Pitrim of Volokolamsk, and others were recruited by the KGB.[13][14]
In 1992, several People's Deputies sued Yeltsin, demanding that his 1991 decrees concerning the Communist Party be declared acts that violated the principles of the contemporary Constitution. On 30 November 1992, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation partially reviewed the decrees and lifted the ban against the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR.[20]
Communist Party re-established
The Russian embassy in Helsinki, Finland, still bears the Soviet emblem bas-relief
Unlike many other countries of the former Soviet bloc, in Russia lustration of senior Communist Party and KGB officials was staunchly resisted and has never been implemented there. Many with such a background have remained in power; most present-day Russian politicians began their careers in the Soviet period. A draft law on lustration was first put before the Russian parliament, then the RSFSR Supreme Soviet, in December 1992 by Galina Starovoytova. Neither at that time nor later have such proposals been successfully introduced.
Those arrested for their part in the August Coup were released from prison in 1992. The charges against them were lifted on 23 February 1994 under an amnesty issued by the State Duma, which also covered those involved in the October 1993 events.
Conscious attempts in Russian society to deal with the Soviet past have been uncertain.[21] Organisations such as the Memorial Society have worked on numerous projects involving witnesses to past events (Gulag inmates, Soviet rights activists) and younger generations, including schoolchildren. The organization was officially banned in Russia in 2022.[22][23][24]
On 30 October 2017, Putin attempted to draw a line under the past when he unveiled the massive but controversial Wall of Grief monument in Moscow.
↑ "Орлы не вернутся". The Art Newspaper Russia (in Russian). 6 April 2015. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
↑ RSFSR Presidential Decree No 79 (23 August 1991), "On suspending the activities of the RSFSR Communist Party" (Указ Президента РСФСР от 23 августа 1991 года N 79 "О приостановлении деятельности Коммунистической партии РСФСР").
↑ RSFSR Presidential Decree, No 169 (6 November 1991), "On the activities of the CPSU and the RSFSR Communist Party" (Указ Президента РСФСР от 6 ноября 1991 года N 169 "О деятельности КПСС и КП РСФСР").
↑ Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia – Past, Present, and Future. 1994. ISBN0-374-52738-5.
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