Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2023 22:47:45 GMT
The "Mother Ukraine" statue in Kyiv, known until 2023 as the "Motherland" memorial, is a statue near the centre of Kyiv standing 102 metres tall. It is an archetype of the socialist-realist style of art, which was the official style of art in the USSR until 1988. It was erected to commemorate the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War.
It is also said that it was originally designed to be higher than the tallest cross on the domes of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, but that this plan was dropped on order of the Soviet authorities due to protests from the Russian Orthodox Church.
It was officially opened in 1981 by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, L. I. Brezhnev.
The shield on the statue has always borne the hammer and sickle state emblem of the USSR. This was removed 6 days ago and has been replaced with the Ukrainian trident.
The statue, it should be mentioned, is exempt from the extremely strict "decommunisation" laws that were passed by President Poroshenko in 2015 - some monuments are exempted. For example, in the centre of Brezhnev's hometown in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in east-central Ukraine, a bust to the Soviet leader under the name of "Memorial to the four-times Hero of the USSR L. I. Brezhnev" still stands.
However, the Motherland monument - which is now being ironically re-dedicated to the Ukrainian war effort against Russia - has had the emblem replaced by a Ukrainian trident. For many people in Ukraine, this was seen as necessary to move away from the Soviet past. Still others, particularly older people, will be lamenting yet another monument that represents the period of stability they experienced in their youth being removed. Indeed - in 2018, almost half the Ukrainian population claimed to view Brezhnev as a positive figure in their history, and it is his eighteen year rule of the USSR that many older people in Ukraine still remember fondly.
For younger Ukrainians, however, there is no question - there is no place for the Soviet coat of arms on the shield of a statue that overlooks the entire city of Kyiv.
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It is also said that it was originally designed to be higher than the tallest cross on the domes of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, but that this plan was dropped on order of the Soviet authorities due to protests from the Russian Orthodox Church.
It was officially opened in 1981 by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, L. I. Brezhnev.
The shield on the statue has always borne the hammer and sickle state emblem of the USSR. This was removed 6 days ago and has been replaced with the Ukrainian trident.
The statue, it should be mentioned, is exempt from the extremely strict "decommunisation" laws that were passed by President Poroshenko in 2015 - some monuments are exempted. For example, in the centre of Brezhnev's hometown in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in east-central Ukraine, a bust to the Soviet leader under the name of "Memorial to the four-times Hero of the USSR L. I. Brezhnev" still stands.
However, the Motherland monument - which is now being ironically re-dedicated to the Ukrainian war effort against Russia - has had the emblem replaced by a Ukrainian trident. For many people in Ukraine, this was seen as necessary to move away from the Soviet past. Still others, particularly older people, will be lamenting yet another monument that represents the period of stability they experienced in their youth being removed. Indeed - in 2018, almost half the Ukrainian population claimed to view Brezhnev as a positive figure in their history, and it is his eighteen year rule of the USSR that many older people in Ukraine still remember fondly.
For younger Ukrainians, however, there is no question - there is no place for the Soviet coat of arms on the shield of a statue that overlooks the entire city of Kyiv.
Before:
After: