Director of Ukrainian Institute of National Memory: de-communization in Ukraine is complete
De-communization in Ukraine is complete, stated the director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory Volodymyr Viatrovych in an interview with Radio Liberty.
"De-communization in the context of removing the symbols of the totalitarian regime has actually been completed. We have renamed the settlements, about a thousand of them. It’s almost done. I say almost because after the renaming there were 9 or 10 non-obvious Communist names. They nevertheless fall under the law about de-communization," Viatrovych said.
According to Viatrovych, almost all of the monuments of Lenin in Ukraine were dismantled. "There are about 2,500 monuments, not only to Ilyich [Lenin], but to other communist leaders. But we cannot say that this is the precise number because a significant part of these monuments is simply not on any records. They might be on the territory of some factory or on the territory of a village, about which no one remembers," the director said.
In April 2015, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed a bill called "On the condemnation of the communist and national-socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of propaganda of their symbols." According to the bill, monuments to all figures of the communist and Nazi regimes are to be demolished, and their propaganda is prohibited.
According to the survey of the sociological group "Rating," almost half of all citizens (48%) support the idea of banning communist ideology in Ukraine. 36% were against and 16% were undecided.