Vol. 79/No. 15      April 27, 2015

The laws “endeavor to impose particular views on Ukrainian history and effectively criminalize ‘dissident’ positions,” wrote Halya Coynash, a member of the widely respected Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group and outspoken opponent of the laws, April 13. They are especially dangerous in light of “the war being waged by Russia and its proxies, and relentless attempts to sow division and enmity between Ukrainians.”

One law condemns “communist and national-socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine,” making it illegal to display Soviet or Nazi symbols, and bans “public denial of the criminal nature of the communist totalitarian regime of 1917-1991 in Ukraine” — that is during the entire existence of the Soviet Union.

It would outlaw anyone who argues that the Russian Revolution in 1917 was an advance for the working class in Ukraine and worldwide, even if they are opponents of the Stalinist counter-revolution there and fought against Stalin’s assaults on Ukraine in the 1930s and beyond.

Another measure grants social benefits and full military status to veterans of nationalist forces during World War II, including the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. Both groups were branded fascist by the Stalinist regime in Moscow and Ukrainians hold wide range of opinions about them today. But the new law seeks to stifle any debate and force everyone in Ukraine to hail the two groups or face charges.

There is substantial evidence that forces in these groups collaborated with Nazi occupation troops when they invaded Ukraine. Some of their members developed revolutionary anti-Stalinist views after the war and fought to advance the national interests of workers and farmers in Ukraine.

A third thought-control law bars calling World War II the “Great Patriotic War,” saying it prohibits “falsification of the history of the Second World War 1939-45” in schools, textbooks, the media and by public officials — posing the obvious question of who decides what qualifies as “falsification.” The final law purports to open the archives of the secret police from the Soviet era, placing them under the control of the Institute for National Remembrance, which helped draft the other thought-control measures.

All four laws were adopted unanimously by the Cabinet, rubber-stamped by parliament and now await the signature of President Petro Poroshenko.

The passage of the laws “is not just killing the chances for real historical investigation and debate,” Coynash wrote. “It is also forcing a significant number of Ukrainians to fall silent or face being against the law in their own country for expressing their opinions.”

She cited a recent survey of Ukrainians’ views of historical events, highlighting regional differences that the government’s course will exacerbate. “Most regions view the collapse of the Soviet Union positively,” she said, “however the opposite is true in three regions” — Donbass, Kharkiv, and Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporizhya, all eastern regions where the pro-Russian separatist forces are based. Nationally, “a relative majority (47 percent against 20 percent) viewed the creation of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic positively,” which would put nearly half of the population at odds with some aspects of the new laws.

“There is no reason to expect Russia’s well-paid and manned propaganda machine to stay silent when such obvious opportunities to fuel resentment and anger are handed to them on a platter,” Coynash said.
 
 
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