Prominent Ukrainian newspaper renamed under decommunisation law

The Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine newspaper, one of the most popular daily newspapers in Ukraine, has been renamed KP in accordance with the country’s decommunisation law.

“The Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine daily has changed its name, beginning from 12 January 2016. It is now called KP in Ukraine. The editorial office had to take this step due to the decommunisation law that exists in the country,” read a statement on the newspaper’s website.

During the Soviet era, Komsomolskaya Pravda was the All-Union newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Komsomol. “Komsomol” refers to the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, a political youth organisation in the Soviet Union. Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine was founded in 1996, and is not officially related to the original Komsomolskaya Pravda paper nor the contemporary Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine is a Russian-language newspaper, but some regional editions are published in the Ukrainian language.

The step to rename the newspaper was also taken “due to the Justice Ministry’s unwillingness to take account of the fact that the newspaper’s Ukrainian edition, which has already existed for 19 years, has never been the ‘mouthpiece of VLKSM’ [All-Union Lenin Communist Youth Union], but is one of the leaders of Ukraine’s print media,” the online statement read.

Earlier this year, Ukraine adopted a set of decommunisation laws that that outlaw communist and Soviet symbols.

Source: Interfax