Decommunization in Ukraine

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Decommunization in Ukraine started during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and expanded afterwards.^[1] Following the 2014 Revolution of Dignity and beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Ukrainian government approved laws that banned communist symbols, as well as symbols of Nazism as both ideologies deemed to be totalitarian.^[2]

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]

In the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, the Security Service of Ukraine reported that the Communist Party of Ukraine had been helping pro-Russian separatists and Russian proxy forces in the country.^[9] In July 2015, the Ministry of the Interior stripped the Communist Party, 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 court actions to end the registration of communist parties in Ukraine.^[10] By December 2015, these parties had been banned, for involvement in violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, inciting a violent overthrow of the state, and supporting Russian proxy forces.^[11] The Communist Party of Ukraine appealed the ban to the European Court of Human Rights.^[12][13][14]

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]