Ukrainian Security Service To Make Secret Soviet Documents Public

Finally, a post-Soviet country that has the sense to do what the Germans did following the dissolution of the Berlin Wall: publicize all classified documents to be readily available to the public. I wholeheartedly laud Ukraine's SBU (Служба безпеки України) for this decision, something that will undoubtedly add mountains of information to the history of the injustices of the Soviet Union. One can only hope that other post-Soviet countries will follow suit. The following article appeared today in RFE/RL.

KYIV -- Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) has said it will hold a lustration process this year with previously classified documents, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports.

SBU spokesman Valentin Nalivaychenko has said that all secret files from the Soviet period in Ukraine between 1917 and 1991 will be made available to the public.

He said beginning on January 21, "Ukraine does not keep the secrets of the Soviet Union's repressive system."

Nalivaychenko added that there are currently more than 800,000 cases of files sealed as "secret" or "top secret."

The SBU said it will eventually set up a website that will contain all lustrated documents.