Ukraine erasing Russian past from public spaces: Dostoevsky out, Warhol in
- Ukraine has shifted a campaign that used to focus on dismantling its communist past into one of ‘de-Russification’, renaming streets and pulling monuments down
- It is affirming its identity, honouring its own leaders, heroes, artists – US’ Warhol had family links to nearby Slovakia; overall Russia, not Soviet legacy, is the enemy
On the streets of Kyiv, Fyodor Dostoevsky is on the way out. Andy Warhol is on the way in.
Ukraine is accelerating efforts to erase the vestiges of Soviet and Russian influence from its public spaces by pulling down monuments and renaming hundreds of streets to honour its own artists, poets, soldiers, independence leaders and others, including heroes of this year’s war.
Following Moscow’s invasion on February 24 that has killed or injured untold numbers of civilians and soldiers and pummelled buildings and infrastructure, Ukraine’s leaders have shifted a campaign that once focused on dismantling its Communist past into one of “de-Russification”.
Streets that honoured revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin or the Bolshevik Revolution were largely already gone; now Russia, not Soviet legacy, is the enemy.
It is part punishment for crimes meted out by Russia, and part affirmation of a national identity by honouring Ukrainian notables who have been mostly overlooked.
Russia, through the Soviet Union, is seen by many in Ukraine as having stamped its domination of its smaller southwestern neighbour for generations, consigning Ukrainian artists, poets and military heroes to relative obscurity, compared with more famous Russians.