The meaning of the word "lustration". Detailed analysis

The article considers the meaning of the word "lustration", understands its meaning and provides relevant examples from the history of Russian politics.

Policy

In the process of development of any civilized modern society, various political and social trends inevitably arise in it. At all times, this has been the cause of many civil wars, disasters and just unstable situations. Even in those states where there is a clear one-party system and free-thinking is not allowed, there are always those who are not satisfied with the existing political system and the alignment of forces.

But sometimes it happens that the whole system changes dramatically, for example, as a result of a revolution or something else. And then actions such as lustration often take effect. The meaning of the word "lustration" will be discussed in this article.

Definition

The very word "lustration" comes from the Latin lustratio, which in literal translation means "purification through sacrifice". However, in practice everything is not so gloomy. If we consider examples of post-communist countries in Europe, Russia and other CIS countries, then these are special laws and practice, according to which persons unwilling by the ruling party for political reasons are not allowed to the civil service, security agencies and other important posts of government. Usually, such persons include individuals who previously had a relationship with the repressive structures of the former political regime. So now we know what lustration is.

Also, these laws usually cover all persons who were involved in crimes in the field of human rights violations, military atrocities and generally associated with the power or agitation structures of the previous government. It is understood that lustration in itself is obliged to show the legitimacy and strength of the new administrative apparatus. He breaks all ties and analogies with the old regime, thereby recognizing it as criminal. This is the meaning of the word "lustration".

Such processes took place most actively in those countries of Europe that were freed from fascist enslavement and generally cruel political order. But in the same countries of Latin America, in their time, few were lustrated. Usually everything ended in the so-called process of national reconciliation.

So, we disassembled the meaning of the word "lustration".

Practice in the history of Russia

If we talk about our country in the period since the beginning of the collapse of the USSR, then in the ruling circles the possibility of lustration according to the pattern that was applied in Eastern Europe was considered. The meaning of these proposals was to limit in the near future the organizers and participants of the former totalitarian communist policy in public and, especially, political activity. Simply put, the meaning of the word "lustration" was to prevent the former active communists, KGB employees and others from those posts that give at least some power of any social level.

However, proposals of this kind of legislative and official force have not been received. The only and so far the last measure in post-Soviet Russia was the law, according to which the victims of various political repressions were rehabilitated, on October 18, 1991. This bill implied that all employees of the power and legal structures that participated in the consideration of cases of political repression should have been brought to criminal responsibility. But, despite the fact that information about those workers who were allegedly guilty of falsifying evidence and sentences, periodically popped up in the press, in practice no measures to them were applied, apart from isolated cases. So we considered the question of what lustration is in Russia.

Ukraine

However, this word was most often met in the media precisely because of the political events that began with the so-called EuroMaidan.

In 2014, one of the demands of the opposition and the participants of EuroMaidan was precisely the question of lustration of the many active officials and other persons holding posts in public and law enforcement agencies. Later, when the opposition won, a lustration committee was created. He drafted a law, the meaning of which was to cleanse the power apparatus. And already on September 16, 2014, this law was adopted at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada. So we figured out what the word "lustration" stands for, and examined its example in modern realities.

Later, according to the Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, under the new law on lustration, almost one million officials, law enforcement officers and other civil servants fall. Also, those who supported Russia's actions to join the Crimea and the separation of the eastern regions of Ukraine should be tested.

Conclusion

True, at the moment lustration in the same Ukraine often has the character of arbitrariness. It is not uncommon for representatives of various nationalist movements to decide who is no longer entitled to hold public office under the new regime. It ended all with skirmishes and frankly hooligan antics.

So, now we know what lustration is.