In Kiev, they announced their desire to dismantle the shield with the image of the USSR coat of arms banned in Ukraine on the sculpture “Motherland”. About this on Tuesday, May 4, writes the edition “Vzglyad”.
It is clarified that funds were even found in the country’s budget that could be allocated for these works.
However, the grandson of the co-author of the monument, Vasily Borodai, stressed that if the coat of arms was cut down, the balance of the statue would be disturbed, which would lead to its damage.
“The arms of the statue are held on a special counterweight, and if you remove the one with the shield, the balance of the other one, with the sword, will be upset. If you remove only the shield, which is attached to a special arc, from your hand, then this can cause the collapse of the entire structure, ”he explained.
According to Borodai, Kiev’s initiative can be called an outrage, since the statue “Motherland” is one of the best works of the millennium.
In turn, the head of the board of the Union of Artists of Russia, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, sculptor Andrei Kovalchuk indicated that removing the coat of arms from the statue’s shield would not be a problem, but such a step is unacceptable either from a historical or artistic point of view.
“In any case, this is a grandiose work of monumental art, a product of the 1970s era and in tune with it. This means that it is already a historical monument. Therefore, to alter it somehow is blasphemy, ”the sculptor said.
On April 21, in Lviv, by order of the local authorities, work began to dismantle the monument of glory to the Soviet army, which was erected in the city in May 1970. The monument is dedicated to the memory of the victors over Nazism in the Great Patriotic War.
Since 2015, Ukraine has been pursuing a policy of decommunization within the framework of the law “On the Condemnation of the Communist and Nazi Regimes”. The law provides for the renaming of all topographic objects, the names of which are reminiscent of the USSR, as well as the demolition of monuments.