Ukraine breaks from Russia in commemorating victory

Parliament passed a number of decommunization laws on April 9. These include the law that bans Nazi and Communist symbols and replaces the Soviet term “Great Patriotic War” with the more common “Second World War.”

The law bans the display of images of Soviet leaders, which also includes monuments, quotes, flags, badges and emblems with the communist insignia. According to the law, public performances of the Nazi and Soviet national anthems are also prohibited. However, the law doesn’t specify if the Russian national anthem, which uses the Soviet music with different lyrics, is subject to the law.

Special status was also granted to all Ukrainian military organizations of the 20th century, including the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought for the country’s independence against Soviets and Nazis. Another law opens access to Ukrainian KGB archives from 1917 until 1991.

If the laws come into effect, Ukraine will be the second country, after Lithuania, that has passed such stringent restrictions on Soviet and Nazi symbols among the 15 post-Soviet republics.

Lawmaker Hanna Hopko of the Samopomich party, one of the authors of the bill that bans communism propaganda, thinks that Ukraine should have followed the example of Lithuania long time ago.

“Lithuania and other Baltics states had a deliberate policy of decommunization,” Hopko says. “After the president signs those laws, Ukraine will break with its communist past.”

Volodymyr Viatrovych, one of the authors of the bills and the head of the Ukrainian National Memory Institute, says that the Russian national anthem won’t be prohibited. The law only bans the anthem of the USSR with the old lyrics.

Ukraine’s communists were outraged. Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko believes these laws “undermine national security and thwart everything the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact had declared.”

Communists often argue that western Ukraine had been transferred to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in 1939. “Then you also should mention that Lviv needs to be under Polish rule again,” Symonenko says.

The laws also sparked discussions among academics, many of whom don’t believe they should go into force.

German academic Andreas Umland, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, along with a number of historians and activists, recently published an open letter to the president calling on him not to sign the so-called “anti-Communist law.”

“In their current form such laws would damage Ukraine’s international reputation and national reconciliation,” Umland says. He believes, however, that the laws could be useful, as long as they do not limit the freedom of speech. “Some current formulations of the laws on communist symbols and on independence fighters are unhelpful, to put it mildly.

A solution, as he sees it, is a broad discussion in the expert community that would help to improve the laws’ texts.

Vasyl Rasevych, a senior researcher at the Institute of Ukrainian Studies, agrees.

He says decommunization laws contradict many existing laws and international obligations to freedom of speech. They also lack a clear mechanism for implementing them. Rasevych says it was a populist move by the government and is certain the laws will need to be amended.

“It feels like (the lawmakers) acted in an enthusiastic manner (while introducing the laws), characteristic of the Soviet Union’s communist youth league,” Rasevych says.

So Parliament introduced amendments to the law on Communist and Nazi propaganda on April 23. The law now doesn’t ban wearing original colors, medals and other military decorations that were given out before 1991.

If the law is signed by the president, all monuments for Communist figures should be demolished and streets named after communist ideologists will have to be renamed. It also means that at least 42 Ukrainian cities – mostly in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts – will have to find new names.

There was an attempt to wipe out the Soviet past from Ukraine’s history during the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s third president. He started the process of opening up KGB archives and in 2007 he issued a decree aimed at removing state symbols from the totalitarian past. However, the effort came to nothing.

Mykhailo Kalnytskiy, a historian and a member of Ukrainian Association for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, believes it’s not high on the agenda to rename cities in times of war. Lawmakers should consult with historians before changing city names, he said.

Remembrance Poppy vs. St. George’s Ribbon

By removing symbols of the Soviet past, Ukraine is also distancing itself from Moscow’s view of history, which places the start of World War II in 1941 when Nazi Germany invaded the USSR. This includes minimizing the use of another symbol linked to the Kremlin, St. George’s Ribbon.

The origin of the orange-and-black striped ribbon goes back to 1769, when Empress Catherine the Great issued the Order of St. George as the highest military decoration of Imperial Russia.

Pro-Kremlin propaganda maintains that the ribbon symbolizes the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II. But the ribbon wasn’t recognized by the Red Army and was only reintroduced as a Russian state award in 1992.

Yulia Latynina, one of Russia’s most respected independent journalists and critics of the Russian government, says the ribbon is merely an effective public relations tool.

She said that it was introduced as the Kremlin’s response to the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine. In 2005, journalists from the RIA Novosti news agency and a youth civic organization launched the campaign and called on volunteers to distribute ribbons in the streets ahead of Victory Day. It is now a yearly practice.

“However, this is a clear sign of historical illiteracy,” Latynina says.

“In the 1960-70s there were no St. George’s Ribbons seen during the Victory Day parades. If someone showed up with a ribbon, it would be a violation. That’s why now only people who have little understanding of history would pin military decorations to clothing. It’s the same as giving epaulettes to random people in the streets.”

It has become a cult for Russians, as they often tie St. George’s ribbons to cars, pin them to bags and clothes and even to dog collars. Later it became associated with those who are fighting pro-government forces in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, there is another side to the medal that is often omitted by Russian media. St. George’s Ribbon – along with the tricolored flag – was often used by the Russian Liberation Army that fought alongside the Nazi army during World War II.

Instead, Poroshenko said Ukraine will use the Remembrance Poppy, a British wartime symbol that commemorates the fallen soldiers of World War I.

Some historians believe it’s a narrative that Ukraine should pursue.

Both Rasevych and Vyatrovych believe that for most Ukrainians, St. George’s Ribbon is not a sign of victory. Vyatrovych of the Ukraine’s National Memory Institute also says the ribbon has become a symbol of terrorists.

“Poppy is also a Ukrainian symbol,” Vyatrovych explains. “According to Ukrainian folklore, poppies bloom where Cossacks blood had been spilt.”

However, many people lack an understanding of what the red poppy symbol means.

Volodymyr Kyanov from eastern Ukrainian city of Artemivsk is uncertain about the poppy symbol.

“Why should we use it?” he asks. “What’s that? We used to give carnations for the Victory Day – aren’t those a symbol of remembrance?”

Kyanov explains it’s not easy for him to forget Soviet holidays, as he served in the Soviet army. He also says he’s not against the new symbol being used, but added that people should know more about it.

Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected].