Almost half of residents of Ukraine want decommunization

Some half of the population of Ukraine support the idea of a ban on Communist ideology and over 40 percent support the dismantling of monuments to Lenin, according to a study conducted by the Ukrainian sociological group Rating in November.

According to the results of the poll, which were published on Nov. 17, 48 percent of respondents want a ban on Communist ideology in Ukraine, 36 percent are against it and 16 percent are undecided.

In the meantime, one-third of respondents have supported a ban on nationalist ideology (40 percent are against and 25 percent are undecided). In the past two years, the number of people who support a ban on nationalist ideology has decreased from 40 percent to 35 percent.

Forty-one percent of respondents said they support the initiative to dismantle all monuments to Lenin in the country, whereas almost half of respondents (48 percent) are against this and 11 percent are undecided.

As to changing the Soviet names of cities and streets in Ukraine, most respondents (57 percent) are against this idea. If the renaming can take place selectively, people’s attitude to the initiative tends to be considerably softer and supporters outnumber those who oppose the change of Soviet names (49 percent against 44 percent).

The poll, which surveyed 2,000 residents of Ukraine aged 18 and older, was conducted on November 4-11, 2016.