Decommunization

• Dismantling of Soviet symbols. For example, on the building of the Grand Kremlin Palace, the coat of arms and the inscription of the USSR were replaced by five double-headed eagles.
• Return to the cities of historical names. For example, Gorky was renamed back to Nizhny Novgorod , Sverdlovsk - to Yekaterinburg , Leningrad - to St. Petersburg .
• The return of other pre-Soviet place names, including street and square names. For example, the name F. Dzerzhinsky in Moscow was returned the name Big Lubyanka.

• Destruction of Soviet symbols .
• Library cleaning, etc.
• Renaming streets and squares.

Crime Investigation Organizations

• Cambodia - Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
• Czech Republic - Bureau for Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism
• Slovakia - Institute of National Remembrance - Ústav pamäti národa (Sk)
• Estonia - Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against Humanity
• Germany - Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives (BStU)
• Hungary - Institute of the History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
• Lithuania - Lithuanian Center for the Study of Genocide and Resistance
• Poland - Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish People
• Romania - Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania
• Ukraine - Ukrainian Institute of National Memory
• Russia - Memorial International Historical, Educational, Human Rights and Charity Society

Sentences

• Bulgaria - Todor Zhivkov was sentenced to 7 years in prison, and served only one day, because he was released "for health reasons." His closest associate, Milko Balev, was convicted of corruption for 2 years in prison, but the sentence was quashed following a protest from a lawyer. The head of the Bulgarian State Security Committee, Mircho Spasov, died under house arrest during the investigation.
• East Germany - Erich Honecker was arrested, but was soon released due to his advanced age and state of health. On the same grounds, Erich Milke , Willy Stoff , Gunther Mittag , Kurt Hager , Hermann Axen were discharged. Several people, for example, Egon Krenz , Fritz Strelets , Heinz Kessler , Hans Albrecht, were sentenced to several years in prison. Gunter Kleiber and Gunther Shabowski received a pardon.
• Poland - Wojciech Jaruzelski was able to avoid appearing in court with reference to poor health. Stanislav Kochelek was acquitted for lack of evidence. Trials against Miroslav Milevsky , Bohuslav Stakhura , Zenon Platek were terminated due to the health of the accused. Tadeusz Tuchapsky died before the sentencing. Cheslav Kishchak was found guilty, but the verdict was symbolic. Only some commanders and rank-and-file soldiers of the ZOMO , as well as Adam Humer , Vladislav Chaston , and Jozef Sasin, received real sentences. (Some analysts explain the “helplessness of Polish justice” as confidential agreements reached in Magdalenka and at the Round Table .)
• Czech Republic and Slovakia - Miroslav Stepan spent in custody for about two years. Lubomir Strougal , Milos Jakesh and Josef Lenart are acquitted in court. The case against Vasil Bilyak was closed by the Slovak prosecutor's office. Antonin Kapek and William Shalgovich committed suicide.
• Romania - Nicolae Ceausescu was sentenced to death and shot . Several of his closest associates - Emil Bobu , Manya Manescu , Ion Dinke , Tudor Postelnik - were sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of genocide, but were released several years later on charges re-qualification and state of health.
• Albania - Ramiz Aliya , Necmie Khoja , Muho Aslani , Lenka Chuko , Adil Charchani , Prokop Murra , Hekuran Isai , Simon Stefani , Manush Muftiu , Kino Bujeli and several other senior functionaries of the APT and Sigurimi were sentenced to prison. Almost all of them were released ahead of schedule, either due to health reasons or during the political struggle between various clan groups.
• Cambodia - Kang Kek Yeu was sentenced to 35 years in prison on July 26, 2010 ^[2] . Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan are serving a life sentence, Ieng Sari and Ta Mok died before sentencing.
• Ethiopia - Companions of Mengistu Haile Mariam appeared before the tribunal and were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for genocide, mass killings, usurpation of power, and the organization of hunger. In relation to Mengistu himself, who managed to escape from the country, a death sentence was imposed in absentia.

Lustration began to denote a state policy of restricting the participation of former communists, and especially informants of the communist secret police , in the political life of the country, which was expressed in a ban on taking public posts, professional practice and removing privacy status (any information about the origin, details of the biography is publicly available etc) .

In some countries, monuments to communist figures were dismantled. In Ukraine, this process has intensified since the end of 2013 . On June 22, 2017, the Polish Sejm adopted amendments to the law on decommunization, providing that monuments “glorifying the communist heritage” should be dismantled within 12 months (except for monuments located in burial places and in some other cases) ^[3] .

The decommunization package varies by country. In some states, decommunization measures have been canceled or mitigated in a judicial proceeding (including under the influence of international bodies).

Azerbaijan

In 1994, a huge monument to Kirov (erected in 1939) was dismantled in Baku , and in 1995, almost in the same place where it stood, a mosque in Istanbul style was built ^[4] .

Armenia

In Armenia, decommunization was still under the Soviet regime - in 1990-1991. Moreover, decommunization was intertwined with nationalism and was accompanied by the demolition of monuments to pre-Soviet figures of Russian culture. In September 1990, under the pretext of disrepair, a bust of Alexander Pushkin was dismantled in Yerevan (it was restored again after nine days by the efforts of teachers of the Russian language and literature) ^[5] . In 1991, a monument to Lenin was removed from the main square of Yerevan, having previously beheaded it ^[6] . The removal was greeted with joyful cries (although some viewers expressed doubts about the advisability of dismantling) ^[7] . One of the spectators tried to urinate on the taken statue (in memory of his father, who suffered from repressions), and some spectators threw stones and coins at the monuments ^[8] . The pedestal of the Lenin monument stood until 1996, when it was removed by order of the President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan (moreover, the residents of Yerevan tried to prevent dismantling and once they managed to turn off the builders compressor) ^[9] .

Hungary

In 2000, a criminal punishment was introduced in Hungary for the use of communist symbols (sickle and hammer, red star) ^[10] . However, the practice of its application provoked the dissatisfaction of the European Court of Human Rights , which in 2008 in the “Important against Hungary” case condemned Hungary because the deputy head of the Workers' Party of Hungary was subjected to criminal punishment, who attached a red star to his clothes during a public demonstration ^{[10 ]} . After that, in April 2013, a new version of this law was adopted in accordance with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights ^[10] .

Georgia

In August 1990, they doused with paint in Tbilisi and threw bottles of gasoline (then set fire) on a statue of Lenin in Lenin Square ^[11] . The next day, the Tbilisi authorities removed the statue from the pedestal, tearing her legs off at the same time ^[12] .

Kazakhstan

In 1997, a monument to Lenin in the city of Almaty was dismantled from the central Lenin Square and transferred to the square behind the Saryarka cinema. The square itself was renamed to Astana. In other cities, monuments to Lenin were also dismantled from the central squares.

Lithuania

In 2010, criminal liability was introduced in Lithuania for publicly supporting, denying or significantly diminishing the crimes committed by the Soviet Union against the republic or its inhabitants ^[10] . A ban was also imposed on a public demonstration of communist and Soviet symbols (except commemorative events) ^[10] . In Lithuania, several employees of the Soviet special services were convicted of criminal charges ^[13] :

• M. Bulatov - in May 2010 was sentenced to 7 years in prison for the murder of “forest brothers” in the early 1950s;
• E. Sokolov - in July 2010, was convicted of having led a group for deporting Lithuanians in 1949 .

Moldova

On October 1, 2012, a law came into force in Moldova that banned the use of communist symbols for political purposes ^[10] . The law stipulated that a party using communist symbols would be punished with a fine (up to $ 810), and if after punishment for two weeks did not refuse to use the symbols, it would be banned ^[10] . The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova appealed to the Venice Commission with a request to give an opinion on this law ^[10] . The Venice Commission reported that this ban violates Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights ^[10] . According to the Venice Commission, there is no connection between the totalitarian communist ideology and the symbols of the hammer and sickle, which the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova has been using since 1994 ^[10] . The Venice Commission decided that the ban on communist symbols could deprive candidates from this party of the opportunity to participate in the elections ^{[14] [15]} . Moreover, the party is not going to forcibly overthrow the democratic constitutional order ^[14] . In a judgment of June 4, 2013, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova in fact declared the prohibition of communist symbols to be unconstitutional ^[14] .

Poland

On October 21, 2017, a law on decommunization entered into force in Poland, which threatens the demolition of monuments of the Red Army.

Uzbekistan

In 1993, a monument to Karl Marx was replaced with a statue of Tamerlane in Tashkent ^[16] .

Ukraine

In May 2015, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a law that banned the propaganda of the communist regime and its symbols ^[17] . A public demonstration of this symbolism provides for criminal liability. In 2015-2016, there were no sentences for using communist symbols. On May 4, 2017, one of the Lvov courts sentenced a university student to 2.5 years imprisonment on probation (using the plea agreement) for publishing philosophical and political quotes from the writings of Lenin and slogans from May 2015 to April 2016 “Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live!” “A plan is a law, fulfillment is a duty, overfulfillment is an honor!” ^[18] . The court returned the equipment seized from the accused (two laptops, etc.), but ordered to destroy Karl Marx’s Capital , party ticket, Komsomol documents, as well as other products with communist symbols (flags, raincoats, raincoats, t-shirts, caps ), red, yellow-blue and St. George ribbons ^[18] . This was the first verdict for using communist symbols in Ukraine (under article 436-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) ^[19] . Also, as part of the decommunization , many monuments of V.I. Lenin and other Soviet politicians. The process of banning the Communist Party of Ukraine has begun (as of 2018, it operates legally).

Russia

A number of authors insisting on de-communization in Russia propose to do this by analogy with the process of denazification of Germany ^{[20] [21]} . Conservative John O'Sullivan considers the adoption of the law on the return of illegally taken property to its former owners very important and moral for decommunization, which, in his opinion, should serve as a warning to any future communist government that all their expropriations are just a matter of time, and the rightful owners will subsequently receive their property back ” ^[22] .

• In March 2017, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) called for the removal of Lenin’s body from Red Square . At the same time, Lenin was called "the main persecutor and tormentor of the 20th century" ^[23] . The ROCOR Synod of Bishops also called for the liberation of settlements from monuments to Lenin ^[23] .
• Doctor of Historical Sciences Andrei Zubov , speaking out in support of decommunization in Russia, indicated that it should be carried out by analogy with denazification ^[21] :

And since it is absolutely clear that Stalin is a terrible figure, a tyrant commensurate with Hitler in terms of cruelty, in the amount of blood spilled, in the number of committed injustices and crimes, then, of course, de-Stalinization of consciousness is necessary, without this there will be no recovery of society.

But we must talk about two more very important things, without which de-Stalinization simply will not happen. First and foremost: in fact, the decommunization of public consciousness should occur, similar to the denazification of consciousness in post-war Germany. De-Stalinization is a private element of decommunization. That is, we must eradicate not only the positive experiences of Stalin, but, say, the positive experiences of Lenin and his henchmen.

• A. Tsipko. You need to start with decommunization // Nezavisimaya Gazeta , 05/17/2011