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Decommunization in Russia
Decommunization in Russia is the process of dealing with the communist legacies of the Soviet Union in terms of institutions and personnel that tends towards breaking with the Soviet past. Russia's Decommunization has been restricted to half-measures, if conducted at all, compared with the efforts of the other Post-Soviet states and the former Eastern Bloc.
Notable anti-communist measures in Russia include the banning of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the restoration of the names of some cities back to their pre-Soviet names, and the construction of memorials to Soviet persecution. A number of public figures and organizations (for example, the political party PARNAS) have advocated for measures of decommunization and holding the organizers and enforcers of totalitarian policies accountable. According to public figure Andrey Zubov, decommunization should be carried out by analogy with denazification, with destalinization being a specific element of this process. According to polls, there is a general consensus among the Russian people that further or complete decommunization should be carried out only after the Soviet-era generations have died, with actions such as the removal of the Lenin Mausoleum and the burial of Vladimir Lenin's body.
Decommunization in Russia has seen the limited removal of communist names for settlements, streets and districts, as well as monuments to communist events and figures. Many prominent Russian politicians began their careers in the Soviet period, and there has been little scrutiny of their actions during this time. Russia's modern communist movement led by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is much stronger than those in other post-communist states.
On 23 August 1991, two days after the failure of the August Coup, Russian president Boris Yeltsin suspended the existence of the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR, pending investigation of its role in the recent events. This decision was taken over the objections of Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who insisted that the party as a whole was not to blame. The Communist Party Regional committees (obkom) in the Russian SFSR were closed, and the building of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the Old Square in Moscow was sealed.
The following day, on 24 August 1991, Gorbachev dissolved the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and resigned as its secretary general while remaining President of the Soviet Union. On 25 August, Yeltsin issued another decree nationalizing the property of the Communist Party, including its archives and bank accounts, and transferring their control to the RSFSR Council of Ministers.
Within a few weeks after the coup, the Soviet Union peacefully broke up. On 6 November 1991, Yeltsin banned the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), which had exercised pervasive control over Russian society for years. The breakup of the Soviet Union was acknowledged in the Belavezha Accords of 8 December, ratified by the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR on 12 December. On 26 December 1991, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was declared. Its largest constituent republic, the Russian SFSR, was renamed the Russian Federation. It was formally established on 1 January 1992 and became the legal successor state of the Soviet Union.
The Parliamentary Commission for Investigating Causes and Reasons of the coup attempt was established in 1991 under Lev Ponomaryov (including also Gleb Yakunin), but in 1992 it was dissolved at Ruslan Khasbulatov's insistence. Having gained access to secret KGB archives as a member of the committee, in March 1992, Gleb Yakunin published materials about co-operation of the Moscow Patriarchate with KGB. He claimed that Patriarch Alexius II, Mitropolit Filaret of Kiev, Pitrim of Volokolamsk, and others were recruited by the KGB.
A large part of the archives of the Communist Party (preserved now in state archives such as Archive of the President of the Russian Federation, Russian State Archive of Contemporary History, Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History and State Archive of the Russian Federation), including almost all documents of its Central Committee, remains classified. For a 1993 view on the problem, see Khubova, Dar'ia & Vitaly Chernetsky (1993). For an example of documents surreptitiously copied in those archives by Vladimir Bukovsky in 1992, see the Bukovsky Archives: Communism on Trial, 1937–1994 compiled and put online by the late Julia Zaks in 1999.
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Decommunization in Russia
Decommunization in Russia is the process of dealing with the communist legacies of the Soviet Union in terms of institutions and personnel that tends towards breaking with the Soviet past. Russia's Decommunization has been restricted to half-measures, if conducted at all, compared with the efforts of the other Post-Soviet states and the former Eastern Bloc.
Notable anti-communist measures in Russia include the banning of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the restoration of the names of some cities back to their pre-Soviet names, and the construction of memorials to Soviet persecution. A number of public figures and organizations (for example, the political party PARNAS) have advocated for measures of decommunization and holding the organizers and enforcers of totalitarian policies accountable. According to public figure Andrey Zubov, decommunization should be carried out by analogy with denazification, with destalinization being a specific element of this process. According to polls, there is a general consensus among the Russian people that further or complete decommunization should be carried out only after the Soviet-era generations have died, with actions such as the removal of the Lenin Mausoleum and the burial of Vladimir Lenin's body.
Decommunization in Russia has seen the limited removal of communist names for settlements, streets and districts, as well as monuments to communist events and figures. Many prominent Russian politicians began their careers in the Soviet period, and there has been little scrutiny of their actions during this time. Russia's modern communist movement led by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is much stronger than those in other post-communist states.
On 23 August 1991, two days after the failure of the August Coup, Russian president Boris Yeltsin suspended the existence of the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR, pending investigation of its role in the recent events. This decision was taken over the objections of Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who insisted that the party as a whole was not to blame. The Communist Party Regional committees (obkom) in the Russian SFSR were closed, and the building of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the Old Square in Moscow was sealed.
The following day, on 24 August 1991, Gorbachev dissolved the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and resigned as its secretary general while remaining President of the Soviet Union. On 25 August, Yeltsin issued another decree nationalizing the property of the Communist Party, including its archives and bank accounts, and transferring their control to the RSFSR Council of Ministers.
Within a few weeks after the coup, the Soviet Union peacefully broke up. On 6 November 1991, Yeltsin banned the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), which had exercised pervasive control over Russian society for years. The breakup of the Soviet Union was acknowledged in the Belavezha Accords of 8 December, ratified by the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR on 12 December. On 26 December 1991, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was declared. Its largest constituent republic, the Russian SFSR, was renamed the Russian Federation. It was formally established on 1 January 1992 and became the legal successor state of the Soviet Union.
The Parliamentary Commission for Investigating Causes and Reasons of the coup attempt was established in 1991 under Lev Ponomaryov (including also Gleb Yakunin), but in 1992 it was dissolved at Ruslan Khasbulatov's insistence. Having gained access to secret KGB archives as a member of the committee, in March 1992, Gleb Yakunin published materials about co-operation of the Moscow Patriarchate with KGB. He claimed that Patriarch Alexius II, Mitropolit Filaret of Kiev, Pitrim of Volokolamsk, and others were recruited by the KGB.
A large part of the archives of the Communist Party (preserved now in state archives such as Archive of the President of the Russian Federation, Russian State Archive of Contemporary History, Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History and State Archive of the Russian Federation), including almost all documents of its Central Committee, remains classified. For a 1993 view on the problem, see Khubova, Dar'ia & Vitaly Chernetsky (1993). For an example of documents surreptitiously copied in those archives by Vladimir Bukovsky in 1992, see the Bukovsky Archives: Communism on Trial, 1937–1994 compiled and put online by the late Julia Zaks in 1999.