Ukraine's Odesa Removes Statue Of Russian Empress
On Wednesday, Ukraine's Odesa utility workers hauled off the massive monument to the 18th-century Russian Empress Catherine the Great, who founded the Black Sea city in 1794 on territory captured from the Ottoman Empire.
Facts
- On Wednesday, Ukraine's Odesa utility workers hauled off the massive monument to the 18th-century Russian Empress Catherine the Great, who founded the Black Sea city in 1794 on territory captured from the Ottoman Empire.
- The statue, which will be moved to the Odesa Fine Arts Museum, was originally erected in 1900 but was removed by Bolshevik leaders in 1920. It was later restored in 2007 as the Odesans decided to bring it back many years after Ukraine's independence from the USSR.
- The removal of the Monument to the Founders of Odesa, which had been vandalized repeatedly since the war in Ukraine erupted on Feb. 24, is part of Ukraine's "de-Russification" effort that includes dismantling and renaming monuments to honor its own heroes.
- This comes after an online public vote on the fate of the monument was conducted by local authorities amid the Russian-Ukrainian war, with the City Council announcing in November that 50.2% of the voters supported its removal.
- Ukrainian nationalists have long advocated the monument to Russian Empress Catherine II be dismantled due to her controversial reputation as she promoted imperialism and liquidated two autonomous Ukrainian entities, while pro-Russian activists opposed the move.
- Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin argued in October that the monument to Catherine the Great was a reminder that Odesa belongs to Russia, and suggested that removing it would be a radical move.
Sources: Telegraph, Sky News, Euro News, Daily Mail, and Kyiv Independent.
Narratives
- Anti-Russia narrative, as provided by Kyiv Post. In the wake of Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, cities like Odesa can no longer glorify Russia’s imperial past. Catherine the Great is a symbol of that imperialism, and she represents the subjugation of Ukraine. Her statue's removal is justified as Ukraine must move forward, independent from Russian influence.
- Pro-Russia narrative, as provided by RT. Despite Odesa authorities claiming that removing the statue of its founder Catherine the Great was supported by the public, only 8K people out of nearly 1M residents participated in the poll. This is actually a top-down anti-Russian move stemming from a presidential request as other monuments honoring Russian heroes have also been scrapped in Ukraine.
