Ukrainian decommunization laws

• 1. Introduction

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  Ukrainian decommunization laws were passed in 2015, in the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War. They outlawed the public display of Soviet communist symbols and propaganda, and did the same for Nazi symbols and propaganda. The laws also restricted the public display of militarism and fascism symbols, including the rising sun flag. Commentators have called them memory laws, a term that captures how directly they reach into commemoration and public memory in Ukraine. The legislation mandated the removal of communist-era monuments and the renaming of places tied to communism or the Soviet Union. Ukraine's toponymy changed radically as a result, with pre-1917 names restored and new Ukrainianized names introduced across the country. But the laws also raised concerns, both about freedom of speech and about how they treat certain wartime organizations. Who wrote these laws, what exactly did they ban, and why did some of their provisions draw objections from beyond Ukraine's borders?

• 2. From Rada To Court

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  Ukrainian historian Volodymyr Viatrovych and politician Yuri Shukhevych were instrumental in drafting the legislation. The Verkhovna Rada passed the laws on the 9th of April 2015 with overwhelming support. President Petro Poroshenko signed them into law on the 15th of May 2015. That signature started a six-month period for removing communist monuments and renaming public places tied to communist themes. The laws were published in the newspaper Holos Ukrayiny on the 20th of May 2015, and took legal effect the following day.

  In May 2017-46 Ukrainian members of parliament, mostly from the Opposition Bloc faction, appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. They asked the court to declare the laws unconstitutional. On the 16th of July 2019, the court ruled against them and upheld the laws. The package that survived that challenge was not a single statute; it was four separate laws, each aimed at a different target.

• 3. Four Statutes

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  Law number 2558 carried the title "On Condemning the Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) Totalitarian Regimes and Prohibiting the Propagation of their Symbols." It banned Nazi and communist symbols and made public denial of their crimes illegal. It also included the removal of communist monuments and the renaming of places named after communist themes.

  Law 2538-1's decision to elevate the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists would soon draw objections well beyond Ukraine's borders.

• 4. A Slap In The Face

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  Article 6 of law 2538-1 states that anyone who publicly insults Ukraine's independence fighters "will be held to account in accordance with Ukrainian law." It adds that publicly denying the legitimacy of the independence struggle "insults the dignity of the Ukrainian people and is illegal." Scholars in Ukraine and abroad signed an open letter to the President over these provisions, citing concerns about freedom of speech and research. Critics have argued the law tries to legislate history and restricts free speech.

  The 2538-1 law passed on the same day as a presidential visit from Poland. Polish politician Tomasz Kalita called it "a slap in the face." Former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller said in a televised interview that the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists was responsible for mass murders of Poles. He dared Ukrainian law enforcement to come after him for saying so. Some of the people and groups honored under the law are recognized as having taken part in the mass murder of Jews, Poles, and Communists. That mass murder occurred during the Holocaust in Ukraine and in the massacres in Volhynia. Volodymyr Groysman, president of the Ukrainian parliament, visited Poland shortly afterward. He said the law was not meant to be anti-Polish, but anti-Soviet and anti-Nazi instead.

  Even as the dispute with Poland played out, the law's other provisions were already reshaping the physical landscape of Ukrainian cities.

• 5. Rewriting The Map

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  By June 2016, the renaming project had touched 19 raions, 27 urban districts, 29 cities, 48 urban-type settlements, 119 rural settlements, and 711 villages. Ukraine's fourth-largest city was renamed from Dnipropetrovsk to Dnipro. In Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, more than 200 streets were renamed by early February 2016. So were 5 administrative raions, 4 parks, and 1 metro station.

  By the end of 2016-51,493 streets and 987 cities and villages had been renamed nationwide. Workers also renamed 25 raions and took down 1,320 Lenin monuments along with 1,069 monuments to other communist figures. In some villages, Lenin statues were remade into "non-communist historical figures" to save the cost of removal.

  That same year, 2016, the law's reach moved beyond statues and street signs and into the machinery of Ukrainian party politics.

• 6. Banning The Communists

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  On the 24th of July 2015, Ukraine's Interior Ministry used the law against three parties. They were the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Communist Party of Ukraine (renewed), and the Communist Party of Workers and Peasants. All three lost their right to participate in elections. The ministry said it was continuing court actions that had started in July 2014. By the 16th of December 2015, all three parties were banned in Ukraine. The Communist Party of Ukraine appealed, and the ban consequently failed to come into force.

  Decommunization law number 2558 also lets the Ministry of Justice bar the Communist Party from elections outright. The Central Election Commission of Ukraine used that power in 2019, blocking Petro Symonenko's candidacy for the presidential election. It ruled that his party's statute, name, and symbolism did not comply with the 2015 laws.

  In 2019, the same laws banning communist symbols led Ukraine to ban the video game Mortal Kombat 11.

• 7. New Veterans

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  In late March 2019, former members of armed units of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army were officially granted veteran status. So were former members of the Polissian Sich, also called the Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army, plus members of the Ukrainian Military Organization and Carpathian Sich. For the first time, they could receive veteran benefits: free public transport, subsidized medical services, annual monetary aid, and utility discounts. Those benefits matched what former Red Army soldiers of the Soviet Union already received.

  Ukrainian nationalist fighters had sought official veteran status before, especially during Viktor Yushenko's presidential administration of 2005-2009. Every one of those earlier attempts failed.

  Free public transport, subsidized medical care, and annual cash aid were new, in 2019, for fighters who had waited decades for recognition.

• 8. A Divided Public

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  A November 2016 poll found that 48% of respondents supported banning Communist ideology in Ukraine. 36% were against it, and 16% were undecided. The same poll asked about dismantling every Lenin monument in the country. 41% supported that idea, 48% opposed it, and 11% remained undecided.

  That 11% still undecided about tearing down Lenin statues left room for Ukraine's argument over its Soviet past to keep running.