Ukrainian Decommunization Laws

Ukrainian decommunization laws refer to four Ukrainian laws of 2015. These laws relate to decommunization as well as commemoration of Ukrainian history. Such laws have been referred to as " memory laws".

As a result of the law mandating the removal of communist-era monuments, and renaming places named after communist themes Ukraine's toponymy was radically altered and the face of whole cities changed. More than 51,493 streets, squares and "other facilities" have been renamed. Various major cities and many villages were renamed.

The laws have raised some concerns about freedom of speech, as well as international concerns that they honor some organizations and individuals that participated in the mass murder of Jews, Poles, and Communists during the Holocaust in Ukraine and massacres in Volhynia.

Passage

Instrumental in drafting the laws were Ukrainian historian Volodymyr Viatrovych and politician Yuri Shukhevych. The laws passed on April 9, 2015 in the Verkhovna Rada with overwhelming support and were enacted by president Petro Poroshenko on May 15 that year. This started a six-month period for the removal of communist monuments and renaming of public places named after communist-related themes.Poroshenko signed the laws about decomunization
Ukrayinska Pravda. 15 May 2015
Poroshenko signs laws on denouncing Communist, Nazi regimes
Interfax-Ukraine. 15 May 2015 The laws were published in Holos Ukrayiny on 20 May 2015; this made them come into force officially the next day.

In May 2017, 46 Ukrainian MPs, mainly from the Opposition Bloc faction, appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to declare the laws unconstitutional.
On 16 July 2019 this court upheld the laws.

Content

The decommunization laws are composed of:
*Law no. 2558 "On Condemning the Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) Totalitarian Regimes and Prohibiting the Propagation of their Symbols" — banning Nazi and communist symbols, and public denial of their crimes. That included removal of communist monuments and renaming of public places named after communist-related themes.
*Law no. 2538-1 "On the Legal Status and Honoring of the Memory of the Fighters for the Independence of Ukraine in the 20th Century" — elevating several historical organizations, including the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, to official status and assures social benefits to their surviving members.
*Law no. 2539 "On Remembering the Victory over Nazism in the Second World War"
*Law no. 2540 "On Access to the Archives of Repressive Bodies of the Communist Totalitarian Regime from 1917–1991" — placing the state archives concerning repression during the Soviet period under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.

Controversy

In Ukraine as well as abroad, some scholars have expressed concerns about freedom of speech and research with regard to the above laws, issuing an open letter to the President. Particularly problematic is Article 6 of Law 2538-1 on "Responsibility for violating the legislation on the status of the fighters for Ukrainian independence in the 20th century", which stipulates that: "Citizens of Ukraine, foreigners, and also stateless persons who publicly insult the people specified in article 1 of said Law harm the realization of the rights of the fighters for independence of Ukraine in the 20th century and will be held to account in accordance with Ukrainian law", and that: "The public denial of the fact of the legitimacy of the struggle for Ukrainian independence in the 20th century mocks the memory of the fighters for independence of Ukraine in the 20th century, insults the dignity of the Ukrainian people and is illegal”. Critics have argued that this law is attempting to "legislate history" and restricts free speech.

The 2538-1 law has also been controversial abroad, since some of the organizations and individuals that it is to be honoring are recognized as having participated in the mass murder of Jews, Poles, and Communists during the Holocaust in Ukraine and massacres in Volhynia. The law was also passed on the day of the Polish presidential visit to Ukraine, and has been described by Polish politician Tomasz Kalita as "a slap in the face". Former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller declared in a televised interview that OUN was responsible for mass murders of Poles, and challenged the Ukrainian law enforcement to persecute him. Ukrainian politician and president of the Ukrainian parliament Volodymyr Groysman, who visited Poland shortly afterward, stated that the law is not intended to be anti-Polish, and was intended to be anti-Soviet and anti-Nazi instead.

Effects on Ukraine

As a result of the law mandating the removal of communist-era monuments, and renaming places named after communist themes Ukraine's toponymy was radically altered and the face of whole cities has been changed.In pictures: Ukraine removes communist-era symbols
BBC News (31 May 2016) All in all more than 51,493 streets, squares and "other facilities" have been renamed.Dekomunizuvaly monuments to Lenin in 1320, Bandera set 4
Ukrayinska Pravda (16 January 2017)
WITH 50 THOUSAND RENAMED OBJECTS PLACE NAMES, ONLY 34 ARE NAMED AFTER BANDERA
Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (16 January 2017) 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, Kharkivs, 4 parks and 1 metro station had been renamed by early February 2016. 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.Decommunization reform: 25 districts and 987 populated areas in Ukraine renamed in 2016
Ukrinform (27 December 2016) In some villages Lenin statues were remade into "non-communist historical figures" to save money.

On 24 July 2015, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry used the law to strip the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Communist Party of Ukraine (renewed) and the Communist Party of Workers and Peasants of their right to participate in elections and stated it was continuing the court actions that started in July 2014 to end the registration of Ukraine's communist parties.Ukraine's Justice Ministry outlaws Communists from elections
Kyiv Post, (24 July 2015)
Justice Ministry bans three communist parties from taking part in election process as they violate Ukrainian law - minister
Interfax-Ukraine, (24 July 2015) By 16 December 2015, these three parties were banned in Ukraine. However, the Communist Party of Ukraine appealed the ban, which consequently failed to come into force. Later, the April 2015 decommunization law no. 2558 allows the Ministry of Justice to prohibit the Communist Party from participating in elections. The Central Election Commission of Ukraine prohibited the candidacy of Petro Symonenko for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election due to the fact that the statute, name and symbolism of his party, the Communist Party of Ukraine, did not comply with the 2015 decommunization laws.The CEC refused to register nearly fifty presidential candidates
Ukrayinska Pravda (8 February 2019)

Late March 2019 former members of armed units of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, former Ukrainian Insurgent Army members and former members of the Polissian Sich/Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army (and members of the Ukrainian Military Organization and Carpathian Sich

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