Taking A Hammer to the Past

By Volodymyr Kish

On June 30^th of this year, five members of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, a right wing political party in Ukraine, took a ladder and sledgehammer to the corner of Khreshchatyk and Shevchenko Blvd. in the heart of Kyiv and proceeded to significantly damage a statue of Lenin that had stood there since 1946. Mykola Kokhanivsky, the key figure who actually wielded the hammer, and his four collaborators were promptly arrested and charged with hooliganism. 

I remember this statue well from the many years I lived in Kyiv, as it was a constant and irritating symbol that Ukraine had still not really freed itself from its oppressive past.  The fact that it stood at the foot of Shevchenko Boulevard, named after Ukraine’s foremost symbol of the nation’s centuries-long struggle for freedom and self-determination, made it that much more painful. 

Although Ukraine gained its independence when the Soviet Union broke up, shedding the legacy of some seventy years of Communist oppression proved to be far more difficult than many imagined in those first heady years of independence.  Ukraine in the 1990s was populated by a significant minority of folks, primarily transplanted Russians, who had done well as the arms and legs of the dictatorial system that ruled Ukraine.  In the aftermath of the fall of the decrepit Bolshevik empire, they managed to enrich themselves by privatising state assets into their own hands and securing for themselves sufficient political and economic power to strongly influence Ukrainian affairs.  To a large extent, they retained a nostalgic attachment to the system and the symbols that had given them the good life.

That is why until recently that statue of Lenin still stood undisturbed at its prominent spot in central Kyiv, in effect mocking the aspirations of Ukrainians longing to finally have a true Ukrainian state of their own.  One should note that it was far from a solitary symbol.  It is estimated that there are close to twenty other Lenin statues still standing in Kyiv alone.  Many others still proliferate throughout the country, especially in eastern Ukraine.

As late as April of this year, two new statues of Lenin were erected in Luhansk Oblast at state expense.  And it is more than statues - travelling throughout Ukraine, it is not uncommon to see the hammer and sickle still gracing public buildings and other structures. 

Especially grating is the large number of “communist” names still gracing geographical landmarks as well as street, village and town names.  Readers may recall that I wrote a column on this theme back in 2004, at which time I noted that there were still over forty villages or towns in Ukraine named with variations of Lenin’s name such as Lenina, Leninka, Leninivka or Leninske. Also included in this dubious group are places with such names as Ulyanovka, Kirovohrad, Sovietskiy, Komisarivka, Bilshovyk, Frynzivka, Chervonoarmeysk and Pervomaisk. As symbols of a repressive regime and ideology that caused so much suffering and oppression to Ukraine, it is shameful that many of these still exist.

Last year, on the occasion of the 75 Anniversary of the Holodomor, President Yushchenko issued a “de-communisation” decree to address this issue by ridding the country of this insulting nomenclature.  Sad to say, as with many of his pronouncements, there has been much talk and little or no action.

It is particularly interesting to note that when these five “hooligans” actually took concrete action to implement his “de-communisation” directive, they were arrested and now face four or five years in prison.  President Yushchenko has been almost totally silent on the incident and on the fate of the five perpetrators.

Their cause has been taken up by Ukrainian nationalists both in Ukraine and abroad.  Locally, a group of Toronto activists have launched an on-line petition calling on President Yushchenko to implement his decree.  Readers can read and sign the petition at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/decommunisation/  

Strong action to address this shameful state of affairs is long overdue.