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On 15 May 2015, President Petro Poroshenko signed a set of laws that started a six-month period for the removal of Soviet communist monuments (excluding World War II monuments) and renaming of public places that had been named after Soviet communists.[3][4] At the time, this meant that 22 cities and 44 villages were set to get new names.[5] Until 21 November 2015, municipal governments had the authority to implement this;[6] if they failed to do so, the oblasts had until 21 May 2016 to change the names.[6] If the settlement still kept its old name, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine could give a new name to the settlement.[6] Violation of the law carries a penalty of a potential media ban and prison sentences of up to five years.[7][8]
By 2016, 51,493 streets and 987 cities and villages were renamed (with either the restoration of their historic names or new names), and 1,320 Lenin monuments and 1,069 monuments to other communist figures removed.[15]
In the following years, although at a slow rate, historical monuments to Soviet leaders were removed in Ukraine.[1] This process went on much further in the Ukrainian-speakingwestern regions than in the industrialised, largely Russian-speakingeastern regions.[1] Decommunization laws were drafted in the Ukrainian parliament in 2002, 2005, 2009, 2011, and 2013, but they all failed to materialize.[17]
During and after Euromaidan, starting with the fall of the monument to Lenin in Kyiv on 8 December 2013, several Lenin monuments and statues were removed or destroyed by protesters.[4]
In April 2014, a year before the formal, nationwide decommunization process in Ukraine local authorities removed and altered communist symbols and place names, as in Dnipropetrovsk.[18][19][20]
On 9 April 2015, the Ukrainian parliament passed legislation on decommunization.[21] It was submitted by the Second Yatsenyuk Government, banning the promotion of symbols of "Communist and National Socialisttotalitarian regimes".[22][23] One of the main provisions of the bill was the recognition of the Soviet Union's regime as "criminal" and one that "pursued a state terror policy".[23] The legislation prohibits the use of communist symbols and propaganda and also bans all symbols and propaganda of national-socialism and its values and any activities of Nazi or fascist groups in Ukraine.[23] The ban applies to monuments, place and street names.[4] The ban does not apply to World War II monuments and when symbols are located in a cemetery.[4][7]
Expressing pro-communist views was not made illegal.[2] The ban on communist symbols did result in the removal of hundreds of statues, the replacement of street signs and the renaming of populated places including some of Ukraine's biggest cities like Dnipro.[4] The city administration of Dnipro estimated in June 2015 that 80 streets, embankments, squares, and boulevards would have to be renamed.[24]Maxim Eristavi of Hromadske.TV estimated late April 2015 that the nationwide renaming would cost around $1.5billion.[17]
The legislation also granted special legal status to veterans of the "struggle for Ukrainian independence" from 1917 to 1991 (the lifespan of the Soviet Union).[22] The same day, the parliament also passed a law that replaced the term "Great Patriotic War" in the national lexicon with "World War II" from 1939 to 1945 (instead of 1941–45 as is the case with the "Great Patriotic War"),[22][25] a change of great significance.[26]
The laws were published in Holos Ukrayiny on 20 May 2015; this made them come into force officially the next day.[27]
On 3 June 2015, the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory published a list of 22 cities and 44 villages subject to renaming.[5] By far most of these places were in the Donbas region in East Ukraine; the others were situated in Central Ukraine and South Ukraine.[5] Under the Decommunisation Laws the municipal governments had until 21 November 2015 to change the name of the settlement they govern.[6] For settlements that failed to rename, the provincial authorities had until 21 May 2016 to change the name.[6] If after that date the settlement still retained its old name the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine renamed the settlement.[6]
On 30 September 2015, the District Administrative Court in Kyiv banned the parties Communist Party of Workers and Peasants and Communist Party of Ukraine (renewed); they both did not appeal.[29][30]
On 16 December 2015, the Kyiv District Administrative Court validated the claim of the Ministry of Justice in full, banning the activities of the Communist Party of Ukraine.[32][33] The party appealed this ban at the European Court of Human Rights.[34]
The City Hall of Mykolaiv in 2006 (left) and 2017 (right). The star, reminiscent of the Soviet era Red star still visible in the 2006 picture, was replaced in November 2016 by the coat of arms of Ukraine.[35]
On 19 May 2016, the Ukrainian parliament voted to rename Ukraine's fourth-largest city Dnipropetrovsk to "Dnipro".[37] The renaming of various locations was signed into the law on 20 May 2016.[38][39]
In May 2017, 46 Ukrainian MPs, mainly from the Opposition Bloc faction, appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to declare the 2015 decommunization laws unconstitutional.[44]
In February 2019, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine refused to register the candidacy of (leader of Communist Party) Petro Symonenko for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election due to the fact that the statute, name and symbolism of the Communist Party of Ukraine did not comply with the 2015 decommunization laws.[46] Symonenko appealed the decision, but the court of appeal confirmed decision of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine.
On 24 October 2023 PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy signed Law No. 8263 that abolished the concept of urban-type settlements in Ukraine.[53] Law No. 8263 was meant to facilitate "de-Sovietization of the procedure for solving certain issues of the administrative and territorial system of Ukraine."[53]
On 30 January 2024, the governor of Lviv Oblast said that the region was the first in Ukraine to remove all of its communist-era monuments.[54]
Criticism
The Ukrainian SSR emblem seen in top of the city hall in Kharkiv, which was removed after the laws took effect.
On 18 May 2015, the OSCE expressed concern that the laws could negatively impact the freedom of the press in Ukraine.[8] The OSCE also regretted what it perceived as a lack of opportunity of civil society to participate in public discussions about the laws.[8]
In April 2015, Russian lawmakers claimed that it was "cynical" to put communist and Nazi symbol on par with each other, and Russian-backed paramilitaries have condemned the law.[7] The then leader and head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's RepublicAlexander Zakharchenko stated in late February 2016 that when renamed cities "return under our jurisdiction", they would be renamed to their pre-decommunized name.[57]
Ukraine had 5,500 Lenin monuments in 1991, declining to 1,300 by December 2015.[59] More than 700 Lenin monuments were removed and/or destroyed from February 2014 (when 376 came down) to December 2015.[59] On 16 January 2017 the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance announced that 1,320 Lenin monuments were dismantled during decommunization.[60]
On 16 January 2017, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance stated that 51,493 streets, squares and "other facilities" had been renamed due to decommunization.[60] By June 2016 there were renamed 19 raions, 27 urban districts, 29 cities, 48 urban-type settlements, 119 rural settlements and 711 villages. The fourth largest city was renamed from Dnipropetrovsk to Dnipro. In the second-largest city of Ukraine,[61]Kharkiv, more than 200 streets, 5 administrative raions, 4 parks and 1 metro station had been renamed by early February 2016.[62]
In all of 2016, 51,493 streets and 987 cities and villages were renamed, 25 raions were renamed and 1,320 Lenin monuments and 1,069 monuments to other communist figures removed.[15] In some villages Lenin statues were remade into "non-communist historical figures" to save money.[63] One of the most prominent examples was Lenin monument in Odesa, which was remade into the monument to Darth Vader.[64]
A November 2016 poll, showed that 48% of respondents supported a ban on Communist ideology in Ukraine, 36% were against it and 16% were undecided. It also showed that 41% of respondents supported the initiative to dismantle all monuments to Lenin in the country, whereas 48% were against it and 11% were undecided.[73]
↑ This ban does not include the national flags of the People's Republic of China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Hungary, Laos, Poland and Vietnam.[citation needed]
↑ The ban is not extended to the national emblems of Belarus, Cuba, Laos, North Macedonia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.[citation needed]
↑ This does not affect the Anthems of Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and formerly, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. They all retained their Soviet-era melody with new lyrics written in its place.
The Communist Party of Ukraine is a banned political party in Ukraine. It was founded in 1993 and claimed to be the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine, which had been banned in 1991. In 2002 it held a "unification" congress when both "old and new" parties merged. The party is a member of the Moscow-based Union of Communist Parties, an umbrella organisation for all communist parties of the former Soviet Union. The party has been led by Petro Symonenko since it was founded.
Soviet-era statues are statuary art that figured prominently in the art of the Soviet Union. Typically made in the style of Socialist Realism, they frequently depicted significant state and party leaders, such as Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin.
Vokzalna is a station on Kyiv Metro's Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line. The station was opened along with the Metro on 6 November 1960 and is named after Kyiv's Central rail station (Vokzal).
Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky was a Ukrainian Soviet politician and Old Bolshevik. He participated in signing the Treaty on the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Petrovsky was Communist Party leader in Ukraine until 1938, and one of the officials responsible for implementing Stalin's policy of collectivization.
The Communist Party of Workers and Peasants was a political party in Ukraine, formed in 2001 following a split from the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU). On 30 September 2015 the District Administrative Court in Kyiv banned the party.
Mother Ukraine is a monumental Soviet-era statue in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The sculpture is a part of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. In 2023, the Soviet heraldry was removed from the monument's shield and replaced with Ukraine's coat of arms, the tryzub.
Decommunization in former communist states is the process of purging former communist high officials and eliminating communist symbols.
The Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People, formerly known as Peoples' Friendship Arch is a monument in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. It was opened on 7 November 1982, amidst the celebration of the 1,500th Anniversary of Kyiv, to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the USSR and the "reunification of Ukraine with Russia in 1654".
Shevchenkivskyi District is a right-bank urban district of the city of Dnipro, located in southern Ukraine. It is formerly known as Babushkinskyi District.
An urban district or urban raion is the second-level administrative division in certain cities in Ukraine. There are 118 districts in 20 cities across Ukraine. The cities that contain districts are mostly administrative centers in addition to the two cities with special status. The number of city districts per region varies between a minimum of two and a high of 21 in Donetsk Oblast. The maximum districts for a single city in the country is Kyiv, which has 10 districts. Cities which have abolished their urban districts are marked in italics below.
The Vladimir Lenin monument in Kyiv was a statue dedicated to Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The larger than life-size Lenin monument was built by Russian sculptor Sergey Merkurov from the same red Karelian stone as Lenin's Mausoleum. It was displayed at the 1939 New York World's Fair and erected on Kyiv's main Khreshchatyk Street on 5 December 1946.
Ivan Ivanovych Kulichenko is a Ukrainian politician who was from 2014 until 2019 People's Deputy of Ukraine; prior to this he was Mayor of Dnipropetrovsk for 15 years.
The demolition of monuments to Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine started during the fall of the Soviet Union and continued to a small extent throughout the 1990s, mostly in some western Ukrainian towns, though by 2013 most Lenin statues in Ukraine remained standing. During Euromaidan in 2013–2014, the destruction of statues of Lenin become a widespread phenomenon and became popularly known in Ukraine as Leninopad, a pun literally translated as "Leninfall", with the coinage of "-пад" being akin to English words suffixed with "fall" as in "waterfall", "snowfall", etc.
Ukrainian decommunization laws were passed in 2015, in the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War. These laws relate to decommunization as well as commemoration of Ukrainian history, and have been referred to as "memory laws". They outlawed the public display of Soviet communist symbols and propaganda, and outlawed the public display of Nazi symbols and propaganda. These laws have also restricted the public display of militarism and fascism symbols, including rising sun flag.
The demolition of monuments to dedicated to Russian poet and playwright Alexander Pushkin in Ukraine started during the Russo-Ukrainian War. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it has become a widespread phenomenon and dubbed by Ukrainians Pushkinopad, a pun literally translated as "Pushkinfall", akin to the "Leninfall" during the decommunization process. This wave of dismantling is part of the process of derussification in Ukraine.
Derussification in Ukraine is a process of removing Russian influence from the post-Soviet country of Ukraine. This derussification started after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and intensified with the demolition of monuments to Lenin during Euromaidan in 2014 and the further systemic process of decommunization in Ukraine. The Russo-Ukrainian War gave a strong impetus to the process. Along with decommunization, derussification has been described as one of the components of a larger process of decolonization in Ukraine.
Imagery promoting the Soviet Union has been a prominent aspect of the Russo-Ukrainian War, especially since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Both Russia and Russian separatist forces in Ukraine have used Soviet symbols as a means of expressing their antipathy to Ukraine and to Ukrainian decommunization policies. For Russia, in particular, these displays are also part of a broader campaign to de-legitimize Ukrainian statehood and justify annexations of the country's territory, as was the case with Crimea in March 2014 and with southeastern Ukraine in September 2022.
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