Derussification of Ukraine, 2014
It was when I started to post this photo of the statue of Catherine the Great that I discovered she is no longer there… That removal was part of the Derussification of Ukraine. The Revolution of Dignity, also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution, took place in Ukraine in February 2014 at the end of the Euromaidan protests. It was In late November 2013, that Ukrainians took to the streets in peaceful protest after then-president Viktor Yanukovych chose not to sign an agreement that would have integrated the country more closely with the European Union. On February 22, 2014, after President Yanukovych had fled the country, parliament voted to oust him and hold new elections and on May 25, Ukrainians elected Petro Poroshenko as president. After the October elections, a new pro-reform coalition government came into power in December 2014. Polls conducted in Odesa from September to December 2014 found no support for joining Russia.
On 25 January 2023, UNESCO announced that the historical city center of Odesa was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. In order to provide technical and financial assistance if needed, it was also included into the list of world heritage sites in danger.
Here’s the story of the statue:
On December 29, 2022 “A statue of 18th century Russian empress Catherine the Great was removed overnight from public view in the port city of Odesa as part of Ukraine’s campaign to purge public spaces of monuments to Russia, Sky News reported.
“The towering figure of Catherine, who founded Odesa in 1794, was originally erected in 1900, but only reinstalled by the city council to the central square in 2007. It had been in storage since 1920 when it was toppled by the Bolsheviks.
“In late November, Odessa authorities agreed to remove the monument again after more than half of the city’s residents voted for its destruction in an online poll. Around 30 percent voted for it to stay with a new historical context and a slim percentage voted for it to stay unchanged.
The statue, which is titled the Monument to the Founders of Odesa and features the likeness of several figures from Russia’s Imperial past, will be relocated to the Odesa Fine Arts Museum from Ekaterininskaya Square.
“In an echo of the worldwide movement to topple monuments linked to periods of colonization, Russian statues have been defaced or taken down across Ukraine.”
References:
Ukrainians in Odesa Dismantle Monument to Russia’s Catherine the Great
Derussification in Ukraine at Wikipedia
Revolution of Dignity at Wikipedia
Monument to the founders of Odesa at Wikipedia
Understanding Ukraine’s Euromaidan Protests