Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has supported a decision that allows the removal of monuments to Russian port Pushkin, Soviet military commander Shchors, and other Russian and Soviet figures from the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Cultural Heritage of National Significance and the dismantling of monuments to them.
This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy on 10 November.
“The liberation of Ukrainian cities and Ukrainian culture from communist, Soviet, and Russian-imperial evil continues. Local authorities must finally clear the space of markers of anti-Ukrainian policy – dismantle and transfer monuments,” said acting Minister of Culture and Information Policy Rostyslav Karandeiev.
In September 2023, the ministry announced it was initiating such an appeal to the government. The Ministry of Culture said six Kyiv-based monuments and several more located in other cities have already been removed from the register, according to Suspilne Kultura.
This resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers was adopted under the decommunization and decolonization ligislature, the laws “On Condemnation of the Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) Totalitarian Regimes in Ukraine and Prohibition of Propaganda of Their Symbols” and “On Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Russian Imperial Policy in Ukraine and Decolonisation of Place Names.”
Earlier, the Kyiv City State Administration reported that a significant number of objects related to the history and culture of Russia and the USSR had already been dismantled in Kyiv. However, many more sites are monuments of national importance, and a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers is needed to remove them from public space.
Read also:
- Decommunization: Kyiv City dismantled over 60 Soviet monuments, 56 more slated for removal
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- Poland tears down four communist-era monuments to Red Army amid decommunization of public space
- Demolishing monuments not enough to destroy post-Soviet nostalgia, but property rights help | 30 Years of Freedom, p.1
