Solutions to win: Ukraine to pass decolonization law replacing imperial Russian monuments and street names
On July 27, the law on decolonization will enter into force in Ukraine. From now on, the decision to demolish a particular object will be made by a special expert commission created at the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, Rubryka reports.
What is the problem?
With the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a new wave of removing markers of Russian and Soviet imperial policy from Ukraine's public spaces began, which is named decolonization. This process needs normalizing at the state level the removal of truly Russian propagandistic markers and, at the same time, not destroying works that have artistic value.
What is the solution?
On July 27, 2023, Law of Ukraine No. 7253, "On Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Russian Imperial Policy in Ukraine and Decolonization of Toponyms," will enter into force. This law covers the removal of Russian imperial toponyms, like street names and names of historical monuments, replacing them with relevant Ukrainian historical names. The law doesn't prohibit the use of Russian imperial symbols if it's an object of world heritage, funds of national museums, archives, libraries, graves, symbols of current Russian invasion, antiques, private collections, and documents.
How does it work?
The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance is creating an expert commission (this is provided for in p. 6 of Law No. 7253), which will provide its conclusions regarding each specific object. Bohdan Korolenko, an employee of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance and candidate of historical sciences, told this in a comment to Rubryka.
"The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance can be contacted either by the initiators of such dismantling or, conditionally, by institutions on the balance sheet of which this or that object is located and in which doubts arise as to whether the law applies to this object," Bohdan Korolenko said. "Of course, you can't just come and knock down an object with a hammer because someone thought something was wrong. Only the Constitutional Court can interpret the current legislation, not any citizen or institution."
The expert commission will become operational on July 27 and include relevant recognized experts from academic and higher educational institutions in Ukraine. For example, the expert explains those who are specialists in Russian or Ukrainian culture, conventionally, in the period of the XVIII-XIX centuries.
He emphasizes: "It will be necessary to consider each specific case separately because Law No. 7253 also contains several exceptions. If it is really a work of art and conditionally there is an image of a two-headed eagle somewhere that can simply be removed, the work will be preserved."
Author: Olha Stukalo
