, Columnist
Nazis Triumph Over Communists in Ukraine
Rewriting history to glorify nationalists who collaborated with Hitler.
Everything must go.
Photographer: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
It's goodbye Lenin, hello Nazi collaborators in Ukraine these days. Laws signed into effect by President Petro Poroshenko require the renaming of dozens of towns and hundreds of streets throughout the country to eliminate Soviet-era names. At the same time, Ukraine will begin to honor groups that helped Hitler exterminate Ukrainian Jews during World War II.
Ukrainians' desire for a European identity and a break with the country's Soviet past is Poroshenko's biggest political asset, but these latest steps should worry the country's Western allies.