Ukraine's Parliament has opened access to the archives of repressive Soviet agencies, banned Communist and Nazi symbols and propaganda and granted special status to all Ukrainian military organizations of the 20th Century that fought for its independence. The lawmakers also established Remembrance and Reconciliation Day in Ukraine on May 8 to commemorate victims of World War II.
The laws
were passed in a series of votes on April 9. The head of the Ukrainian
Institute for the National Memory, Volodymyr Viatrovych, one of the authors of
the bills, called them a “decommunisational package.”
The way in
which the laws were passed, however, generated controversy.
Volodymyr
Yavorskyy from the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union described the
procedure as in keeping with the “Soviet and Communist spirit.”
“Bills were
registered in parliament only on April 3, and before that their final version
wasn’t public,” he wrote on his Facebook page soon after the vote. “I am sure
99 percent of people haven’t even read what was banned. I don’t even speak of
the deputies.”
Oleksander
Vilkul, one of the leaders of the Opposition Bloc party, also criticized the
laws. He promised to “to protect our veterans”, and demanded that “the real
decentralization” should be provided for every community to decide what days to
celebrate and what monuments to erect.
Opened
archives
Ukrainian
lawmakers has passed the law that opens the access to the archives of 1917-1991
years of the repressive bodies of the communist regime.
According to
Viatrovych, the repressive organs’ documents of the Soviet Union get the
special status and the access to them can’t be restricted to anyone. He also
said that all the archives will be passed to the historical Institute for the
National Memory.
To get into
the archive a citizen will need to show his passport and to write the request
to look at the documents.
Banned symbols
Ukraine’s Parliament has passed legislation that
recognizes the Communist and Nazi totalitarian regime as criminal and those
that pursued a state terror policy.
The bill also bans propaganda and symbols of the
regimes, along with any activities of Nazi and fascist groups in Ukraine.
After the law comes into effect, all monuments
for Communist figures must be demolished. Cities and streets, named after the
communist ideologists are supposed to be renamed.
Special
status for military organizations
Parliament passed the bill that grants special
status to everyone who took part in fighting for Ukraine’s independence in the
20th century, including all insurgency and partisan groups and organizations
such as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent
Army.
The law states that these fighters and their
family members can be provided with governmental benefits.
Ukraine also recognizes awards given to fighters
for independence by the organizations to which they belonged.
The legislation was initiated by Yuriy
Shukhevych, lawmaker from the Radical Party and son of the Ukrainian
Insurgent Army leader Roman Shukhevych.
Remembrance
and Reconciliation Day
Parliament has also established the Remembrance and
Reconciliation Day in Ukraine on May 8 to commemorate all the victims of World
War II. May 9 will remain Victory Day, when people will celebrate the victory
over the Nazi regime.
The term Great Patriotic War will no longer be
officially used.
All the remembrance ceremonies should not include any
Soviet symbols, under the law.
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]
