‘Lenin was an enemy of humanity’: Why Kyiv wants to put Cossack chief statue in place of Soviet leader (www.theguardian.com)

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/10430348

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/10430184

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After winning independence in 1991, Ukraine removed large numbers of Soviet-era statues and renamed streets as part of “decommunisation”. The process sped up in 2014 when Russia seized Crimea and fighting began in the Donbas, and moved even faster after Vladimir Putin’s 2022 full-scale invasion that aimed to scrub Ukraine from Europe’s map.

Nataliia Kryvda, a professor of the history of culture at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, said Ukraine was going through an unfinished period of decolonisation. “The USSR absorbed national cultures. It tried to make a single nation of Soviet citizens. Russia today looks at Ukraine and says we are one people. It isn’t true. We have our own mindset, historical destiny, beliefs and dreams. Our identity is a dynamic process,” she said.

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[-] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It's actually much more complex. Donbass had a slight Ukrainian majority, but it was mostly rural. And also Ukrainians were (and still are, however much Ukrainian government insists on opposite) very heterogenous. And also there were (and still are!) plenty of people without clear preference for one of the national identities.