Neither Pushkin nor Leningrad: Invasion accelerates Ukraine’s derussification

The Soviet-era monument in Kiev paid tribute to the USSR’s 12 “heroic cities” for their role in World War II against the Axis Powers. Where now the names of Moscow, Leningrad or Brest have appeared are Mariupol, Irpin or Bucha. Earlier this month, a group of activists removed the names of all (mostly) cities in Russia and Belarus, leaving only Ukrainians — Kiev, Sevastopol, Odessa and Kerch — and placed banners over the worst-hit Ukrainian cities. The current invasion of Russia. You can also see traces of torn communist symbols and the Ukrainian flag on a T-34 tank that took part in the defense of Kiev in 1943.

It was a private initiative of the local government. On the other hand, Sakrebulo this Tuesday immediately dismantled one of the main symbols of the Ukrainian capital: a monument celebrating the friendship between the two countries at war since 1982. “Their attitude towards Ukraine is based on the brutal killings of peaceful Ukrainians, in the destruction of our cities and towns and in their desire to destroy our state,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

These are not two isolated cases. The invasion accelerated the derussification of Ukraine, which began with independence in 1991 and deepened after the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in Donbas in 2014. The measures not only affect the historical events most prevalent in the two countries (of which Moscow lives as part of a common past between the brothers and Kiev as a Russian denial of their differentiated identities), but also culture such as the late Russian music radio, poet Alexander The removal of the Pushkin image or the decision to renaming streets dedicated to Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky.

There are some formal initiatives; Others, acts committed by activists, military or paramilitaries that are later forgiven or applauded by the local government. And the goal is not always what is purely Russian, but what is Soviet, seen as a foreign past, imposed and centralized in Moscow.

For example, the city of Ternopil has removed a statue of Pushkin. “Russian Crimes Against the Ukrainian People” […] They have erased the culture of the Russian people. “They leave us no choice,” said the mayor, Sergi Nadal, after insisting that the writer has nothing to do with the city. In Lvov, as in the West, at the age of 16, authorities removed a five-pointed red star and a hammer and sickle to transport them to the Territory of Terror, a museum dedicated to dictatorial regimes. In May, Lviv will also rename 30 streets dedicated to Russian personalities or cities. “But not for five or ten years and then change again, but for the next 100 years,” the mayor, Andriy Sadov, said, according to local media. The western city of Uzhhorod will do this with 58 streets associated with Russian characters, and on the eastern avenues of the Dnieper, such as Moscow, this will no longer be the case.

Kharkiv, a large Russian-speaking city and one of the most heavily bombed cities, is a clear example of the rapid role of war in derussification. On the 17th, two military vehicles dismantled the bust of Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov and dumped it in a landfill. A photo of an empty pedestal with the inscriptions Praise Ukraine and the national coat of arms appeared on the Telegram message channel. Both the removal of the monument (demolished during a demonstration in June 2019 and transferred to City Hall a month later) and the renaming of Zhukov Avenue to Petro Hrihorenko (a former Soviet soldier who ended his days in exile in the United States). Dissident) was for years embroiled in political and legal turmoil, which the invaders solved with the stroke of a pen.

Cultural law, the russification machine

“Hatred of Russia and the use of its culture as a weapon is of great importance in propaganda warfare, especially after the massacre of civilians in Bucha,” said Anna Reid, a British journalist and historian and a leading academic. Ukraine and author The Soviet Union used Russian cultural law (Pushkin, Tolstoy, ballet, etc.) as a means of Sovietization and Russification. He forced these students through the USSR, while non-Russian writers were more or less ignored or even banned. “So the removal of the Pushkin images is not a protest against Pushkin himself, but against Moscow’s attempt at long-term homogenization,” he added.

The radio stations have already stopped broadcasting Russian pop and rock music, which enchanted teenagers and young people. The bill, which may be discussed in parliament at 11 a.m., proposes not to broadcast it on television, in institutions, on public transport, in educational and cultural institutions, in hotels, restaurants, cinemas and public places “until the release of all Ukrainian-occupied territories.”

A poll by the Ukrainian Sociological Research Group at number 6 shows overwhelming support for both these destructive measures and other anti-democratic connotations. 76% support the renaming of the streets, 90% support the removal of pro-Russian deputies, 81% raise taxes on Ukrainian businessmen who continue to operate in Russia, and 51% veto the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Patriarchate of Moscow.

The mayor of Kiev on Tuesday announced the dismantling of another 60 monuments, bas-reliefs and symbols related to the USSR and Russia, and the renaming of more than 460 streets. Someone had previously put stickers on a statue of Pushkin in the same park, with his middle finger raised and the famous phrase “Russian ship, go to hell,” in which a Ukrainian soldier responded to a Russian sailor who demanded his surrender. At the beginning of the war. And the metro boss Viktor Brahinsky wants to rename it Friendship of Peoples, Lev Tolstoy Square, Brest, Minsk and the Heroes of the Dnieper.

But not all symbols in the capital were affected. By mid-month, the statue of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a Soviet guerrilla murdered by the Nazis, was preserved intact, north of the city, in doomed Chernykhov. As well as several plaques and museums of Russian leaders in author Mikhail Bulgakov’s historic Questa de San Andres. Born in Kiev and under Stalin’s censorship, but from a Russian family.

Restoring the language, history and myths of the Soviet Union has been on Ukraine’s political agenda since 1991. The patriotic enthusiasm and the inevitable emotional reactions that the invasion provoked helped Russian President Vladimir. Putin now claims that the population of Russian descent in Ukraine is at risk. That is the reason for launching the attack in February last year.

The trend gained more media attention after the 2014 Donbass War, when Russia formed an alliance with separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. This is called the “abolition of Russian culture”. Ukrainian media artists and intellectuals argue that this is an inevitable action. As the novelist Andrei Kurkov explained to this newspaper: “Russians use culture as an instrument, primarily their classics. Russian modern culture is not much. This is the soft power of the Kremlin, this is not a culture. Receiving Russian culture and common heritage for a writer will come in 30 or 40 years.

After the pro-European Maidan Revolution in 2014, which overthrew pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, and after the outbreak of war in Donbas, Ukraine passed a law on decommunization. For example, the street where Kanyctiha works has not been dedicated to Lenin since 2019, and after Easter it bears the name Voskresenskaya. The battle for the newspaper also reflects Russia’s enemies. Joyar Dudayev, leader of the Chechen independence movement in the 1990s, took to the streets in many Ukrainian municipalities in his honor.

In the post-Maidan moments, what became known as the demolition of Lenin statues. In the west of the country, that happened as early as the 1990s, but not in the south and east, where, historian Reid recalls, amicable compromises were made, such as the role in blue and yellow scarves (American colors). Flag). Ukraine) in Slovyansk or disguised as Darth Vader in Odessa.

Russian is still the most widely used language in the country, but there are only a few generations left to change it. At Berdychev School No. 8 in central Ukraine, its use was discontinued during the Donbas War. It is written in Ukrainian, English and Hebrew at the entrances to institutions and classrooms – the municipality has a rich Jewish heritage – but not in Russian.

There are many examples in everyday life, for example, the names of people: student Daria Shapovalova in Lviv asked to be called Darina, the Ukrainian version of the same name, and the official representative of the Museum of History of Dnepros Svetlana Kaniktiha pointed out the same. Thing: She is Svitlana. Some Russian-speaking Ukrainian refugees said after moving to Poland that, as a result of the invasion, they decided to start communicating with friends in Ukrainian or to make it their children’s first language at home.