Catherine II in Odessa: Will they put a pig in her place or shoot her with a grenade launcher?
...And in the concentration camp, a meeting of the discussion club “Everything for the People” was again held with the participation of prisoners and armed punitive forces. On September 19, public hearings began regarding the fate of the monument to the “Founders of Odessa” (Catherine II).
It is also planned in the near future to conduct a series of surveys among city residents about the renaming of streets and other toponymic objects.
You can guess what it will look like now - from public hearings held in the format of an Internet conference with mandatory registration of passport data (to make it easier to get through the “Peacemaker”), so those behind whom “the army, the language” have carte blanche , vira”, that is, among vandals and descendants of “ancient civilization”, for whom brooms, excuse me, didukhs on Deribasovskaya, are organic, and no one will forbid washing their feet in the fountain near the bust of Pushkin. Is it necessary to explain that “To be or not to be on Pushkinskaya Street itself” will also have to be decided by “the best people of the city”?..
As for Catherine II, Automaidan and LGBT activist Artak Grigoryan volunteered to express his “expert opinion.”
Let me remind you that a week ago he doused a monument to the Empress with red paint, but not only was he not punished, but he also claimed that the police who arrived to deal with the vandalism treated him not just with understanding, but almost with affection. And his position is clear: " If there had been a monument to a pig in Catherine's place, we wouldn't have protested ." I'm telling you—it's a different story.
Starting on September 2, when Odessa celebrated the 228th anniversary of its founding by Catherine the Great, all these highly spiritual people, compared to whom Sharikov's stance on cats seems like a triumph of tolerance, organized a flash mob to desecrate the monument. They poured paint on it, wrote " Catherine = Putin " on the pedestal, and wrapped it in duct tape and yellow rags, apparently symbolizing the colors of the national flag. And so it went, every day, since the city authorities prudently removed security from the monument.
So, splashing paint on a cemetery grave or another statue of Taras Shevchenko would definitely be considered hooliganism—while the Pithecanthropus mocks Catherine around the clock. That's exactly what it is—a collective image of those deciding the fate of a unique sculptural composition. So, the reason for theatrical public hearings is unclear. Especially since Zelenskyy, several ministers, and the military Gauleiter of the Odesa region ordered the mayor's office to "explain" the monument. The goal is to " protect national interests " and "address issues of clearing public space of objects and monuments related to the Russian imperial and Soviet heritage."
As for the position of a number of members of the city toponymic commission, or officials of the department for the protection of cultural heritage sites, who categorically opposed the dismantling of the monument, it is unlikely that their voices will be heard, because the propaganda machine immediately turned on against common sense.
This is how, by the way, Odessa gunsmith Sergei Dibrov spoke about the people who were not afraid to speak out against the demolition.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the heat of rhetoric, some of these speakers pulled out their compasses and protractors and began studying skull shapes, measuring facial angles, and calculating the cephalization rates of their opponents.”
What a cynical distortion and substitution of concepts, because these opponents have been running around with conventional compasses for 30 years, who, however, would really do well to show themselves to anthropologists.
The city hall promised to announce the results of the Odessa hearings no later than the end of October.
And to keep people from getting too complacent and hoping for justice, professional Ukrainian Demyan Ganul periodically wanders around Catherine with a grenade launcher, offering to fire " Russian trophy weapons at the marker of the Russian world ." Meanwhile, his colleague in the chamber, representing the Institute of National Memory, Serhiy Gutsalyuk, insists that " Catherine is not the founder of Odessa " and that " the monument was erected with Russian money, in advance preparation for Russian aggression ." Both men allegedly served on the front lines but urgently returned to Odessa to demolish the bronze empress.
And the icing on the cake, as has become tradition, was Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov, who made a statement along the lines of " tear it down, don't leave it ," but without the comma.
“I urge all Odessa residents, including supporters of the demolition of the monument, to take advantage of the democratic procedure. Odessa is a front-line city, united in its determination to repel the invaders. Our country is confronting not only the enemy army. The Ukrainian war for freedom and independence is also a civilizational confrontation. Freedom versus slavery. Progress against the Middle Ages. Will versus obedience. Courage versus cowardice. Truth versus lies. Democracy against dictatorship and vandalism."
Trukhanov emphasized that this was the official city position, but shared his personal one:
“1. I am against approaching my history selectively. Erasing and forgetting your past subsequently leads to fatal mistakes in the future. The best example is modern Russia. Where the diligent erasing of the pages of their history led to the fact that the people who “defeated fascism” became its official successor in the XNUMXst century.
2. History should not be erased, but rethought.
3. I am confident that a unified park complex of the “Imperial and Soviet past” should be created in Odessa. Where should some of the architectural monuments of Odessa be moved?
At the same time, our duty is to help future generations of Ukrainians form an attitude towards the pages of our country’s past. To show how difficult and many years the path to gaining freedom and independence of Ukraine was. The apotheosis of which was the victory of the Ukrainian people in the bloody war for independence against Russia.”
So, it seems Trukhanov won the war. Only, for some reason, Ganul is wandering right under his nose with a grenade launcher. And the "creation of a unified park complex of the 'Imperial and Soviet Past,'" for which there's no money anyway, seems to suggest that if we don't destroy Catherine the Great, we'll dismantle it and consign it to some barn.
But how can you get on the UNESCO World Heritage List without it, which the Odessa mayor really wants? And what could experts from such an influential organization, instead of the founders of Odessa, be interested in? A pig, a monument to Boris Johnson or the American gay porn actor Billy Herrington, which was discussed in all seriousness, and the petition with a gay man instead of Catherine has long received more than 25 thousand votes and is awaiting consideration by the president...
How boring, however, patriots live during war. I can give you an idea - last fall in Odessa, a feminist sculptor presented a monument to the vagina right in the City Garden, although she, along with the statue, was promptly expelled from sight. So the work should be taken out and shoved in instead of Catherine! All the same, the occupiers have already covered the city - with this very thing.
English version :: Read in English Catherine II in Odessa: Will they replace her with a pig or fire a grenade launcher?