Death Threats for Destroying Soviet Symbols

[Hindustani78]

http://www.newsweek.com/death-threats-destroying-soviet-symbols-322772
4/16/15 at 5:55 PM

Kharkiv, Ukraine—As fighting continues to escalate in east Ukraine, a pro-Russian separatist group calling itself the “Kharkiv Partisans” declared that it would execute five Ukrainian civilians for every Communist monument destroyed, underscoring worries that a recent law banning Soviet symbols might escalate tensions in the war-torn country.

The threat followed a Monday meeting in Berlin between delegates from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany to defuse the Ukraine conflict’s recent uptick in violence.

“[E]ach monument in Kharkiv equals about five Ukrops (a derogatory term for Ukrainians),” Kharkiv Partisans spokesman Filipp Ekozyants said in a YouTube video released April 14, speaking in both Ukrainian and Russian. “Soviet soldiers will always remain heroes and liberators of Ukraine,” he added.

The militant pro-Russian group has previously claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in the Kharkiv region targeting military and civilian targets. Tuesday’s threat referenced a law the Ukrainian parliament passed April 9 banning Communist and Nazi symbols. The law calls for a nationwide purge of Communist symbols, including statues of Soviet luminaries such as Vladimir Lenin, street names with Soviet references, the display of the hammer and sickle and the playing of the Soviet national anthem.

 

[munchkin]

Good call. Lenin is a hero.

 

[Hindustani78]

Activists topple another Lenin's monument in east Ukraine Kramatorsk - read on - uatoday.tv
Apr. 17, 2015
Soviet symbols being removed across Ukraine



Ukrainian activists destroyed a monument to Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in the central square of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, on Thursday, April 16, according to Ukrainian media.

The dismantling was carried out not at night, but in broad daylight, in front of many onlookers during the rally 'Kramatorsk is Ukraine', featuring nearly 1,500 activists (some sources report on 3,000 activists).

Local police tried to prevent activists from pulling down the statue, however activists said they were acting in full accordance with the Ukraine's parliament bill which banned communist and Nazi regime propaganda.

There was a skirmish between activists and policemen, but activists ‘won' and toppled the Soviet leader monument within minutes.

Meanwhile, another monument was pulled down today (April 17) in the village of Stanytsa Luhanska, in the Luhansk region. Within the last year over, 500 Lenin monuments were destroyed across Ukraine.

Last week Ukraine's parliament approved a series of laws which aim to tackle the country's Soviet past. Communist propaganda and symbols will be made illegal, street names referencing communists will be changed, while statues like this one in Kramatorsk will be pulled down.