Authors

Discussion

Abstract: Ukraine occupies a special place in the history of the Decembrist movement: the Union of Prosperity, the Southern Society and the Society of United Slavs operated here, Pavel Pestel's "Russkaya Pravda" was written here, and the Chernigov Regiment revolted here. The worldview of many Decembrists was shaped by Ukrainian traditions, history and culture, and some of them were descendants of Ukrainian hetman Danylo Apostol and other Cossack families. Decembrist ideas had a significant influence on the Ukrainian national movement and its representatives – Taras Shevchenko, Mikhailo Dragomanov, Serhiy Yefremov. In the 1920s, Ukrainian historians spoke about "Ukrainian Decembrists" – the founders of the Ukrainian national movement.

However, the Decembrists were very popular among all opposition political movements of the Russian Empire, including the Bolsheviks. Vladimir Lenin declared them the founders of the "liberation movement", and in the USSR the Decembrists were erected monuments, dedicated works of art, and streets were named in their honour.

During the Russo-Ukrainian war, the main component of Ukraine’s politics of memory is decolonization. Many “victims” of the decolonization were monuments and toponyms relating to Russians who did not support imperial policy (the Decembrists, Alexander Herzen, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Andrei Sakharov). On 26 December 2023, the Expert Commission of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory unfairly attributed geographical objects, names of legal entities, monuments and memorial signs dedicated to the Decembrists to the symbols of Russian imperial policy. The fighters against Russian imperialism have become symbols of Russian imperial policy, and the memory of them in Ukraine will be destroyed.

Keywords: Decembrists, Russo-Ukrainian war, commemoration.