The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted laws that were directed at combating the totalitarian past and had caused fierce disputes both among specialists represented by historians and amateurs – politicians of all the colors of the ideological spectrum and even among everymen at once. If everything is clear with the adherents, then arguments of the opponents can be narrowed down to the three positions: it is unpractical (not in time), lack of funds and imperfection of the laws themselves. And, of course, one should not forget about human rights: according to one of the laws, one could go to prison because of wearing a t-shirt with sickle and hammer and the title “made in the USSR” in the background.
Sense bearing configuration
Main ideas of the decommunization process are presented in the law No.2258 (“On condemnation of the Communistic and National Socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and prohibition of their symbolism propaganda”) and they deal with following aspects. First of all, there is prohibition of public demonstration of the Soviet Communistic symbolism, which is considered to be totalitarian. Secondly, the law provides mandatory renaming of place names connected with the Communistic regime and disassembling of monuments of figures, whose names are connected with Holodomor (Famine-Genocide) and repressions. And, finally, political parties that use the totalitarian symbolism will be refused registration.
The second law No.2538-1 (“On the legal status and honoring fighters for independence of Ukraine in XX century”) provides recognition of contribution of a whole range of organization in formation process of independent Ukraine at the state level. Combatants of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army that Soviet and Russian propaganda calls “Nazi collaborators” without understanding neither terms nor historical realities got in that list.
“Is there any use”
Is there any use to implement such contradictive reforms in the country, where there is war going on and there is still no common position regarding events of the past in the society? These are the main questions opponents of the “decommunization laws” call upon.
I will answer clearly: there is. There is use, despite the war, the economic crisis and other difficulties.
It is needed in order to be done with the fairy tale of “heavenly life” in the USSR once and for all. In order the ones who didn’t get to see the Soviets could understand that ice cream for 20 copecks is nothing compared to the millions that have been destroyed by this system. It is needed in order the society could get vaccinated against totalitarianism for ages.
Monument of Lenin in the center of Simferopol
I would agree with the ones, who believe that now it is not the time for such decisive steps. Indeed, it is not the time. It should be done if not 20 years than at least 10 years ago. Then, most likely, there would have been no annexation of Crimea or war in Donbass. There simply would be nothing to protect – there would be no monuments of the vozhd left. Changing symbolic space would gradually form completely different picture in minds of the young generation.
Let me provide only one example. There are two solid monuments of the “vozhd of world proletariat” for 300 thousand inhabitants of the Crimean capital: one is close to the train station and another one rises threateningly on the central square of the city that bears his own name. Besides that, there is not only a street but also a boulevard named after Lenin. The situation is the same in other towns and villages of the occupied peninsula.
The result of this symbols’ influence is that Soviets, from which, unfortunately, neither Crimea nor Donbass managed to escape. This is why, according to a survey of 2012, 61,5% of the Simferopol youth supported the idea of reappearance of the USSR in an “updated format”. “Back to the USSR” after 20 years of Ukrainian independence…
Price of the issue
Pragmatists speak of the high price of the issue: renaming and demolition requires large material expenditures, although funds are already short under the condition of war. For example, according to the modest calculations, not less than 5 billion hryvnyas will be needed only to rename all the toponyms, including names of the streets.
History is a lady with a specific sense of humor, this is why ideas of the Lenin himself happened to be on the wrong side of the bar, that not only didn’t stand the challenge (no one is tried for that), but served as the ground for machine of total violence that destroyed million of innocent people.
In other words, despite all the difficulties that expect us in the process of combating against the Soviet symbolism, it should be done, and it should be fast and decisive. To cut the “Gordian knot” as once Alexander the Great did. At one fell swoop, once and for all. Price isn’t the main factor here. As it is going to rise as years go by.
Legal nihilism or “one law is for the rich and another for poor”
However, not only the social and political but also the juridical side of the laws, in which attorneys found tons points of issues, inconsistencies and explication – what eventually would allow interpreting them in different ways, drew criticism. And this is rather the main fault that comes from the Russian and Soviet legacy allowing to interpret laws the way political expediency requires.
All of this creates fertile ground for speculations that touch sore spots. “Veterans will not be able to wear orders with Soviet symbolic and red stars will be removed from the graves of the Soviet soldiers,” such news has already appeared in mass media with rather dual passages that t the law No.2258 contains. Some of inaccuracies were corrected by means of series of amendments. In particular, the prohibition will not apply medals, grave sites, science researches and other aspects. But it was done afterwards. Eventually, flaws were corrected but bad fame remained.
Search for consensus
Opponents of decommunization produce another argument saying there is a threat of split of the Ukrainian society both in the context of renaming toponyms and demolition of monuments and in result of recognition of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army commandants as “fighters for independence of Ukraine”. True, there is danger, but it is significantly smaller than the one that threatens in the form of “the USSR 2.0” from the east.
Veterans of the Soviet Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army honored memory of the perished together. May 2015. Kiev.
As for the popular message – that “it is a cold shot for our veterans”, I can only say: the ones who fought back then are over 90 years old now. Everyone of them has his own truth, but they are united by the fact that they fought for Motherland. For Ukraine, either the Soviet one, or the independent one, today it is not that important. Veterans of the Great Patriotic War would hardly refuse from the Soviet myths they lived with entire lives. Veterans of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army would barely believe in fairy tales about the Soviet paradise, remembering atrocities of the NKVD. Here, in my opinion, there is only one recipe for both sides – to forget about ideas, myths, and things that disunited. To forget and try to forgive each other humanly. To simply forgive. For the sake of grandchildren’s and great-grandchildren’s future. For the sake of future of Ukraine they fought that terrible war for.
