Kharkiv City Council votes to rename boulevard to honor Soviet general

The Kharkiv City Council voted on June 19 to return
the name of a main boulevard to honor Soviet Red Army General Georgy Zhukov,
who led the World War II victory against Nazi Germany and Ukrainian independence
fighters. The boulevard was renamed in 2016 to honor Soviet General Piotr
Grigorenko, who studied in Kharkiv and eventually became a political dissident,
serving in a Soviet gulag and eventually being exiled to the U.S.

In response, the Cabinet of Ministers decided the same
day to appeal to local law enforcement authorities to review the legality of
the decision, stating that it violates Ukraine’s law on decommunization. The
National Police in Kharkiv duly opened a criminal case on the council’s
decision on June 20. Recall, activists destroyed a bust honoring Gen. Zhukov in
Kharkiv on June 2, the same day of a party congress organized by Kharkiv Mayor
Gennadiy Kernes. He had called for renaming the boulevard in Zhukov’s honor,
and has vowed to restore the bust.

Zenon Zawada: For the
last two decades, Ukrainian politicians have profited handsomely from Ukraine’s
cultural and historical conflicts. By drudging them up and shifting the media
focus on them, they were able to stir the passions of the public and gain their
votes, while continuing to indulge in their corrupt schemes and to promote
their business interests. This Zhukov stunt is a part of that tradition, with
the entourage of Kharkiv Mayor Kernes aiming to collect the votes of those 50 years
and older (which have the best voting discipline) for the July 21 parliamentary
elections, as well as next year’s local elections.

However, the emergence of the 41-year-old comedian Volodymyr
Zelensky as president reflects the distinct interests of Generation X, which is
more concerned with pragmatic matters (business conditions, eliminating
bureaucracy, road conditions) and far less concerned with cultural issues. The
popularity of The People’s Servant (loyal to Zelensky) and Voice parties
(enjoying 47.1% and 8.1% support at the moment, respectively) reflects this
desire among the younger generations for pragmatic politics.

This is especially the case in Ukraine’s
southeastern regions, where the younger generations are no longer nostalgic for
the Soviet Union and are tolerant of Ukrainian culture. In these cities (eight
of Ukraine’s ten largest), the People’s Servant party is likely to double the
result of the pro-Russian parties (Opposition Platform For Life, Opposition
Bloc), which are aligned with oligarchs and have a legacy of corruption.