Decommunization in former is the process of purging former communist high officials and eliminating communist symbols.
It is sometimes referred to as political cleansing.[Jennifer A. Yoder (1999) "From East Germans to Germans?: The New Postcommunist Elites", ,, pp. 95–97] Although the term has been occasionally used during the Cold War,
In some states, decommunization includes bans on communist symbols. While sharing common traits, the processes of decommunization have run differently in different states.
Responsible institutions
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Czech Republic – The Office of the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism
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Estonia – The Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity
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Hungary – The Committee of National Remembrance
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Latvia – The Centre for the Documentation of the Consequences of Totalitarianism ()
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Lithuania – The Lithuanian Center for the Research of Genocide and Resistance
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Moldova – The Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Moldova
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Poland – The Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation
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Romania – The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania
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Slovakia – The Institute of National Memory – Ústav pamäti národa (Sk)
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Ukraine – The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance
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Bulgaria - The Institute for Study of Communist Crimes in Bulgaria
Purging and prosecution of former communist officials
Decommunization came to refer to government policies of limiting the participation of former communist officials in politics. This should not be confused with
lustration which is the procedure of scrutinizing holders or candidates for public offices in terms being former informants of the communist
secret police.
According to a 1992 constitutional amendment in the Czech Republic, a person who publicly denies, puts in doubt, approves, or tries to justify Nazi or Communist genocide or other crimes of Nazis or Communists will be punished with a prison term of six months to three years.[Whine, Michael (27 April 2008). "Expanding Holocaust Denial and Legislation". Jewish Political Studies Review. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. 20 (1/2): 57–77. .] In 1992, Barbara Harff wrote that no Communist country or governing body had been convicted of genocide.[Harff, Barbara (1992). "Recognizing Genocides and Politicides". In Fein, Helen (ed.). Genocide Watch. 27. pp. 37–38.]
In August 2007, Arnold Meri, an Estonian Red Army veteran and cousin of former Estonian president Lennart Meri, faced charges of genocide by Estonian authorities for participating in the deportations of Estonians in Hiiumaa during 1949.[ "Entisen presidentin serkkua syytetään neuvostoajan kyydityksistä" (in Finnish) "Former. Baltic Guide. Archived from
]
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> the original on 2 April 2009.[ "Estonian charged with Communist genocide". International Herald Tribune. 23 August 2007. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 17 November 2020.] Meri denied the accusation, characterizing them as politically motivated defamation, stating: "I do not consider myself guilty of genocide." The trial was halted when Meri died on 27 March 2009 at the age of 89.[ "Estonian war figure laid to rest". BBC News. 2 April 2009. Retrieved 17 November 2020.]
State leaders
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Bulgaria – Todor Zhivkov was initially sentenced to seven years in prison, but transferred to house arrest for health reasons. He was later declared innocent by the Supreme Court of Bulgaria in 1996 and was released from house arrest shortly thereafter. He died as a free man one year later.
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Cambodia – Kang Kek Iew, Nuon Chea, and Khieu Samphan are Khmer Rouge leaders convicted by the United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
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East Germany – Erich Honecker was arrested, but soon released and the proceedings against him were abandoned due to his ill health. He died in 1994. Several other members of the former East German government, such as Egon Krenz, were nonetheless convicted.
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Ethiopia – Mengistu Haile Mariam was sentenced to death but later commuted to life imprisonment after being found guilty in absentia.
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Poland – Wojciech Jaruzelski avoided most court appearances, citing poor health, and was never convicted. He died as a free man in 2014 and was buried with full military honors at the Powązki Military Cemetery, attended by the incumbent president of Poland, as well as two former presidents.
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Romania – Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena Ceaușescu were sentenced to death and executed by firing squad.
Elimination of communist symbols
Ukraine
The process of decommunization and de-
sovietization in Ukraine started soon after dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, led by President
Leonid Kravchuk, a former high-ranking party official.
[Khotin, Rostyslav (26 November 2009). "Ukraine tears down controversial statue". BBC Ukrainian Service. BBC News. Retrieved 6 February 2020.] In April 2015, a formal decommunization process started in
Ukraine after laws were approved which outlawed
, among other things.
On 15 May 2015, President
Petro Poroshenko signed a set of laws that started a six-month period for the removal of communist monuments (excluding World War II monuments) and renaming of public places named after communist-related themes.
[ Poroshenko signed the laws about decomunization. Ukrayinska Pravda. 15 May 2015]
Poroshenko signs laws on denouncing Communist, Nazi regimes, Interfax-Ukraine. 15 May 2015 At the time, this meant that 22 cities and 44 villages would need to be renamed.
[ In Ukraine rename 22 cities and 44 villages, Ukrayinska Pravda (4 June 2015)][ Komsomolsk in any case be renamed, depo.ua (1 October 2015)] In 2016, 51,493 streets and 987 cities and villages were renamed, and 1,320 Lenin monuments and 1,069 monuments to other communist figures were removed.
[ Decommunization reform: 25 districts and 987 populated areas in Ukraine renamed in 2016, Ukrinform (27 December 2016)]
Poland
Since 1989, Poland has taken down hundreds of Soviet monuments due to the negative reputation the Soviet Union has in Poland.
Although some Poles see the memorials as justified in honouring those who died fighting against Nazi Germany, others seek the removal of Soviet memorials because of the decades of totalitarianism that resulted from Soviet occupation, and also because of the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact and the
Katyn massacre.
Historian Lukasz Kaminski of the Institute of National Remembrance said, "Memorials in city centers and villages can send the wrong historical signal... What do you think we got, when the Soviets liberated Poland from Hitler, if not a new yoke?"
In the 2010s, Poland continued to demolish remaining Soviet monuments, some of which have been relocated to museums.
Finland
Since the collapse of the USSR there was active debate regarding the fate of the Soviet symbols that were received as gifts. For example, the World peace sculpture, gifted to Finland by the USSR in 1990, has been vandalized several times during its existence. Since Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022 the discussion of removing these symbols started to intensify. Statues of Lenin were removed from
Turku and
Kotka supposedly as "a gesture of solidarity" for Ukraine. The World Peace sculpture was also removed from
Helsinki (the official reason was that it needed to be relocated due to roadworks). The name of
Lenin Park will be changed in the future. Critics have considered the latest moves as harmful since history will be erased by these actions. It can also be asked if the erasure can be logically argued as
Lenin and
Putin representing different ideologies. There has been some criticism from the political right-wing regarding the history of the elderly Social Democrats who some accuse of spying for the
Stasi. The so-called
Tiitinen list has been discussed and the right-wing has demanded it be declassified.
Czech Republic
In April 2020, a statue of Soviet Marshal
Ivan Konev was removed from
Prague, which prompted criminal investigation by Russian authorities who considered it an insult. The Mayor of Prague's sixth municipal district, Ondřej Kolář, announced on
Prima televize that he would be under police protection after a Russian man made attempts on his life. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš condemned that as foreign interference, while Kremlin Press Secretary
Dmitry Peskov dismissed allegations of Russian involvement as "another hoax".
Bulgaria
In December 2023, the Monument to the Soviet Army in downtown
Sofia was partially dismantled and set to be put in the Museum of Socialist Art. As of March 2024, it has yet to be put in the museum or replaced with a new monument.
Kyrgyzstan
On 7 June 2025,
Kyrgyzstan authorities took down a statue of
Lenin in the second largest city of Osh, which is also the tallest Lenin statue in
Central Asia.
Results
Communist parties outside of Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states were not outlawed and their members were not prosecuted. Just a few places attempted to exclude even members of communist secret services from decision-making. In a number of countries, the communist party simply changed its name and continued to function.
[ After socialism: where hope for individual liberty lies. Svetozar Pejovich.]
Stephen Holmes of the University of Chicago argued in 1996 that after a period of active decommunization, it was met with a near-universal failure. After the introduction of lustration, demand for scapegoats has become relatively low, and former communists have been elected for high governmental and other administrative positions. Holmes notes that the only real exception was former East Germany, where thousands of former Stasi informers have been fired from public positions.[Michael Mandelbaum (Ed., 1996) "Post-Communism: Four Perspectives", Council on Foreign Relations ]
Holmes suggests the following reasons for the turnoff of decommunization:[
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After 45–70 years of Communist state rule, nearly every family has members associated with the state. After the initial desire "to root out the reds" came a realization that massive punishment is wrong and finding only some guilty is hardly justice.
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The urgency of the current economic problems of postcommunism makes the crimes of the communist past "old news" for many citizens.
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Decommunization is believed to be a power game of elites.
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The difficulty of dislodging the social elite makes it require a totalitarian state to disenfranchise the "enemies of the people" quickly and efficiently and a desire for normalcy overcomes the desire for punitive justice.
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Very few people have a perfectly clean slate and so are available to fill the positions that require significant expertise.
Similar concepts
Decommunization has been compared to denazification in post-World War II Europe, and the de-Ba'athification in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.[ Eric Brahm, "Lustration", Beyond Intractability.org, June 2004, 8 Sep 2009]
See also
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Anti-communism
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Bans on communist symbols
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Communist crimes in Polish legal system
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Lustration in Poland
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Decommunization in Ukraine
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Demolition of monuments to Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine
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Derussification
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Decommunization in Russia
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Denazification
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De-Leninization
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De-Stalinization
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De-Ba'athification
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De-Sinicization
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Communist nostalgia
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Nostalgia for the Soviet Union
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Ostalgie
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Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity
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Proclamation of Timișoara
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Golaniad
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Street name controversy
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Vergangenheitsbewältigung
Further reading
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Kończal, Kornelia (2022), Persistent Legacies of Communism, or the Ongoing Purification of Public Space in post-1989 Poland, in: European Review 30 (4), p. 490–504.
