The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance as an institutional basis for decommunisation in Ukraine

The aim of the paper is to analyse the activity of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance as an institutional basis for decommunisation in Ukraine. The scientific novelty is conditioned by the fact that this is the first comprehensive study which presents creation and activity of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance as an institutional basis for decommunisation in Ukraine. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance was established by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in 2006, in accordance with the initiative of President V. Yushchenko. The institute was created based on the model of memorial institutes that existed in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance received the status of a central executive body and had many tasks related to the restoration and preservation of the historical memory of the Ukrainian people. In 2010–2014, it operated as a research institution. The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance regained its status as a central executive body after the Revolution of Dignity. At that time, it became the institutional basis for decommunisation in Ukraine. The Institute began to coordinate and control the processes of decommunisation (derussification, decolonization); it took part in the development of decommunisation laws and declassified documents related to the Soviet and Nazi totalitarian regimes. In the regions, the task of decommunisation (derussification, decolonization) was also entrusted to the interregional territorial departments of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance. The interregional territorial departments cooperated with local authorities and local self-government.