Marcel Gascon |
Kiev (EFE) country has been independent.
“The process of overcoming the consequences of Sovietization, Russification and communism is not just a legislative issue, but a social demand,” Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said when announcing the decision.
85% supported the change
85% of the more than 800,000 participants in a survey carried out last year by the Government, explained Tkachenko, supported the modification in the shield that the female figure represented in this steel sculpture of more than one hundred meters in height raises with her left hand. height that rises on the banks of the Dnieper River as it passes through Kiev.
Inaugurated by the leader of the USSR Leonid Brezhnev in 1981, when Ukraine was one of the 15 Soviet republics, the statue soon became one of the symbols due to its spectacular nature and its location on the banks of the stretch of river that divides the city in two. most recognizable in the Ukrainian capital.
Starting in 2014, when Vladimir Putin’s Russia first invaded Ukraine in retaliation for the ouster of the country’s last pro-Russian president after months of street protests, the Ukrainian Parliament passed several laws to remove, or at least soften, the traces of centuries of Russian and Soviet rule in the public space.
Motherland Statue
The statue of the Motherland was, from the outset, one of the clear objectives of these laws. But regardless of its origins, the monument was already part of the identity of the Ukrainian capital.
Although it was born as a tribute to the Soviet homeland that the Ukrainians shared in a plane of inferiority with the Russians, the proud female figure that raises her sword and shield to the sky of Kiev had become for many a symbol of the resistance of the city. and the Ukraine to the will of Russia to subdue them.
Dismantling it and placing it in a museum large enough to house it, as was done last year with the statue of the Russian Empress Catherine II in Odessa, was therefore out of the question, and the Ukrainian authorities opted to embody the new coat of arms. meaning that many Ukrainians give to the monument.
Approximate cost of the works of 680,000 euros
The works with which the modification will be made have been approved by the State Inspection of Architecture and Urban Planning. The idea is that the trident representing Ukraine’s sovereignty will be visible on the statue’s shield on August 24, when the country celebrates its independence day.
It is estimated that the works will cost approximately 765,000 dollars (about 680,000 euros) which will be fully covered, so as not to divert public resources from the war effort, by banks, energy and postal companies and other private Ukrainian companies.
In the words of the Minister of Culture, the new coat of arms will transform a monument from another era that now embraces “the new reality” and “contributes to the fight for our freedom and independence.”
The large-scale military invasion launched by Putin against Ukraine on February 24 last year has forever changed Ukrainian society and is also changing many details of the landscape of its cities to reflect the will of Ukrainians to be fully independent and separate from Russia.