Decommunization as a component of the public policy of national memory in Ukraine: regulatory and institutional support

Decommunization is a part of Ukraine’s public memory policy that entails reconsidering the communist (Soviet) past, striving to get rid of its symbols, providing a legal assessment of the political processes that took place during the Soviet period from 1917 to 1991. The article analyzes the legal acts regulating the policy of decommunization and identifies the relevant institutions that ensure its implementation. The issues of opening and providing wide access to the archives of communist and Soviet authorities, studying and disclosure of the truth about the criminal essence of the policy of Soviet government aimed at extermination of the Ukrainian people through famines, mass repressions and deportations in the 1920s-1950s are investigated. The state policy on the recognition of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people and on the commemoration of the memory of its victims was analyzed.