NAZI OCCUPATION AND DISMANTLING OF COMMUNIST MONUMENTS IN UKRAINE DURING WORLD WAR II

Abstract

This paper considers the measures undertaken by the Nazi occupation administration to dismantle Communist monuments in Ukraine during World War II. The research methodology integrates general scientific and special historical methods and the basic principles of historical research, namely: historicism, scientificity, objectivity, and systematicity. The principles of historicism and scientificity have contributed to complex representation of the processes of dismantling the Bolshevik monuments in interconnection and interrelation with the events of that period. The principle of objectivity has facilitated the analysis of the outlined issues taking into account the objective historical regularities, based on a critical analysis of the specialized literature and sources. The principle of systematicity has been used togain a holistic picture of Communist monuments dismantling in Ukraine during World War II. This paper is the first research considering the measures to dismantle Communist monuments in Ukraine under the Nazi occupation on the basis of a comprehensive range of historical sources. The authors come to the conclusion that dismantling of Communist monuments in Ukraine was initiated at the beginning of the Nazi occupation. Bolshevik monuments were often demolished, whereas monuments without any ideological charge were preserved. The policy was supported by the local population, who associated ideological monuments with the Bolshevik anti-Ukrainian policy of the interwar period. To sustain anti-Soviet sentiments, the occupation administration promoted the local initiatives to erect monuments with anti-Bolshevik content (mostly monuments in memory of the Ukrainians executed by the NKVD). The evidence from this study indicates that Bolshevik ideological monuments were completely demolished on the territory of Ukraine during World War II.