Kyiv’s iconic Motherland monument to bear Tryzub instead of Hammer and Sickle
Work is continuing to decommunize Kyiv’s iconic Motherland Monument, the 102-meter-tall Soviet-era statue looming over the banks of the Dnipro River, which bore the Soviet crest on its shield.
Workers were filmed on July 29 removing part of the Soviet crest on the shield, which is to be replaced by a Ukrainian Tryzub (trident) state symbol. Work on the “rebranding” of the monument, which has glared at Kyiv’s east bank since 1981, is to be completed by Ukrainian Independence Day, on Aug. 24.
The monument will also be renamed “Mother Ukraine,” however a decision on this has yet to be approved by the Culture Ministry, Yuriy Savchuk, the general director of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War II said in an except from an interview with Ukrainian Radio.
The full interview is to be released in full on July 31.
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Savchuk said that there are strong reasons for renaming the statue, and said that this was not merely a formality.
“We had a meeting of our museum’s academic board, and important decisions were made then. One of them is the renaming of the Motherland Monument as the Mother Ukraine Monument," he said.
He said he hopes that the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy will approve the academic board’s decision before Aug. 24 when Ukraine marks its Independence Day. However, for the renaming to take effect, an appropriate administrative act needs to be issued by the ministry.
"There should be an appropriate administrative act, which is an order of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy... I always emphasize the interrelationship of these processes – changes in the coat of arms on the shield and the installation of the trident, renaming of the monument, renaming of the museum, expanding of its functions, new concepts, new meanings, new public standing," Savchuk said.
The Motherland Monument is a significant Kyiv landmark, and it is thought to be the tallest monumental sculpture in Europe.
Read also: Monument to Russian poet Pushkin dismantled in Zhytomyr
The push for renaming gained momentum after a voting process in Diia (a mobile app, a web portal and a brand of e-governance in Ukraine since 2020) on July 21, 2022. Almost all voters wanted to replace the Soviet coat of arms on the Motherland Monument with the Coat of Arms of Ukraine.
On May 3, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law allowing the dismantling of Soviet and imperial cultural monuments. Subsequently, on July 13, the State Inspection of Architecture and Urban Planning issued a permit to replace the coat of arms on the monument's shield with a Ukrainian trident.
On July 30, 2023, the Culture and Information Policy Ministry posted photos on Facebook to announce the start of dismantling the Soviet coat of arms from the shield of the Motherland Monument.
“Work has begun to dismantle the Soviet coat of arms from the Motherland Monument as part of the Trident of the Motherland project. By Independence Day, on Aug. 24, the monument will officially receive a new symbol — the Ukrainian trident,” the ministry said.
Also, a video of the start of dismantling works appeared online, where workers remove elements of the coat of arms of the USSR on the monument’s shield.
On July 26, the Culture Ministry said that it had begun the process of preparing for the removal of the Soviet coat of arms from the monument. All funds for the work were provided by patrons, and the total cost of the project is estimated at UAH 28 million (over $761,000).
Read also:
Monument to Russian monarch Catherine the Great being dismantled in Odesa
Kyiv to dismantle two more monuments to Soviet-era figures, says Culture Ministry
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