Source: Interfax-Ukraine
May 16, 2016
Over a thousand monuments to Vladimir Lenin have been dismantled as part of the de-communization in Ukraine, however nearly the same number of monuments remains in addition to 300 populated localities, which were named after communist leaders, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.
"Just recently the Verkhovna Rada has issued six resolutions to rename 688 towns and villages and 15 districts. Over the past year and a half more than a thousand names of streets were changed in the regional centers of Ukraine. From December 2013 until April 2016 more than a thousand Lenin idols and about 150 monuments to other Soviet leaders were dismantled," the president said on Sunday during the events to commemorate victims of political repressions at the Bykivnia Graves memorial, where thousands of people executed during the Stalinist period are buried.
However, there remain almost a thousand of monuments to 'the bloody Ilyich' in Ukraine, Poroshenko said.
"Another eleven districts and nearly 300 cities, towns and villages are waiting for their turn [to be renamed], of which two are regional centers. Can we let the great and glorious cities of Ukraine wear names of Bolshevik executioners Kirov, Dzerzhinsky, or Petrovsky?" the president said.
In this context, he noted the importance of raising awareness of Ukrainians about the need for de-communization.
