#Commentary of Valery Skorokhodov on process of destruction of Soviet symbols in Ukraine
“Mother Motherland” monument in Kiev, which has a state emblem of the USSR on its shield, traumatizes fragile minds of young and not yet very ‘conscious’ citizens. The Ministry of Culture of Ukraine explained its inactivity by the commitment to existing legislation.In particular, the act on “decommunization” excludes cases concerning the use of communist symbols in works of art created prior to the entry of the act into force.
In my view, this exception negates the essence of the law, which, in its Russo phobic essence, is aimed at destroying its own history. So, it turns out that the monuments, the memorials and the symbols of the recent past, based on the interpretation of this exception, were either created less than two years ago or destroyed illegally?
There was a state emblem of the USSR in the Verkhovna Rada, which naturally had been manufactured before the “Decommunization” Act came into force. Facades of governmental, cultural, educational and other institutions, which were works of arts, had the symbols of the USSR. Have the people involved in the dismantling of this symbol been brought to justice?
In addition, there are significant technical and material difficulties that a contractor will encounter in reconstruction efforts. It is a monumental edifice that once again underscores the truth about what heritage the Soviet Union left Ukraine. Thirty kilometers of welding seam! And there are not so many specialists of such level, and the rest will not work for vyshyvankas. The financial situation is even worse because the replacing of the Bogdan Khmelnytskiy Monument in Chernigov costed the government more than 700 thousand hryvnias.
It is surprising that the Ukrainian neo-Nazi movements have not taken advantage of their preferred methods on this issue so far: to repaint, to cut, to fill with construction foam or, at least, to demolish the entire monument… It is easier to pull down than to build.
But the conviction that this destruction would not be followed by responsibility is erroneous. There was the same one, which the fascists had at the time of the Great Patriotic War. By the way, I can give a good example to prove the mistaken view that the penalties will not be followed: this article was written by me just in one of the buildings that was rebuilt by the captive fascists and who did not suspect that one day they would be held responsible for their destructive acts.
Valery Skorokhodov, the DPR People’s Council deputy