Odessa councillors have voted to dismantle a statue of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin
The city council in the Ukrainian city of Odessa approved on Wednesday a plan to dismantle the local statue of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, despite the structure being designated a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.
The monument was installed on Odessa’s Primorsky Boulevard in 1889 using funds donated by residents to mark the time that Pushkin spent in the city. The poet and writer, considered the founder of modern Russian literature, spent 14 months in the Black Sea port, which was a part of the Russian Empire at the time.
According to the news website Strana.ua, lawmakers unanimously adopted amendments to the city budget, allocating funds for the dismantling of 12 monuments containing “imperial symbols.” Aside from the statue on Primorsky Boulevard, the list reportedly also includes a full-height statue of the Russian poet on Italyanskaya Street. Formerly Pushkinskaya, the street was renamed in July.
The idea of demolishing the statue was put forward by the regional governor, Oleg Kiper. In September, he claimed the government in Kiev had excluded monuments to Soviet and Russian figures from the national register of cultural sites, automatically removing them from UNESCO protection.
Since the start of Moscow’s military operation in 2022, the campaign to remove historical links to Russia and its culture has intensified in Ukraine. As part of the movement, Kiev has passed a law on the “decolonization” of street signs, monuments, memorials, and inscriptions.
Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov has opposed the idea of demolishing the monuments, including Pushkin and 19th Century political figure Prince Mikhail Vorontsov. He compared those insisting on their removal, due to the conflict with Moscow, to ostriches burying their heads in the sand. Trukhanov insisted that structures erected by “our great-great-great-grandfathers and grandmothers” should remain in place.
In December 2022, a statue of Catherine the Great was torn down in Odessa, even though the city was founded on her orders in 1794. Several Ukrainian cities, including Dnepr and Chernovtsy, have removed statues and memorial plaques dedicated to Pushkin.
Moscow has repeatedly denounced Kiev’s crackdown on Russian culture and language, insisting that “forced Ukrainization” violates international law and infringes on the rights of around a quarter of Ukraine’s population, who are Russian-speaking.
