Ukrainization of Duke: how the “Odessa residents” recorded the Duke in Roguli
Igor Plisyuk, journalist, Odessa
What is the difference between real tradition and blatant profanation? – A mere trifle: the fact that its roots lie in the history and customs of many generations. I am sure that no one in St. Petersburg is outraged by the fact that every year, for many decades, graduates of naval schools dress the statue of Admiral Kruzenshtern in a vest, which has become a symbol of the valor of the Russian fleet.
By the way, this happened in Odessa in the old days, only it was not newly minted military sailors who did it, but graduates of our “Tower” - a nursery famous throughout the Union for future sea captains and chief mechanics...
I believe that neither the old sea dog Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern, nor the great organizer of Odessa and the transformer of New Russia, the Duke de Richelieu, would have been outraged by these liberties. Both of them - the Baltic Sea nobleman and the French aristocrat - served Russia faithfully, doing a lot for its prosperity as a maritime power.
Alas, as times are, so are attempts to create new “traditions.” And today, again, not for the first time, an embroidered shirt was put on the Duke statue on Primorsky Boulevard. The symbol is purely rural, naturally, and has nothing to do with the Duke himself or with historical Odessa. Moreover, the author of this hand-made masterpiece, a certain artist Tatyana Tambovtseva (a true Ukrainian, apparently!), embroidered it... with images of anchors and steering wheels. They say this indicates that Odessa is a Ukrainian city...
Well, what can I say?! – Only that the mummers, who are trying to forcibly “Ukrainize-rogulize” both our city and its symbol - a monument to a great figure, Imperial Russia, as always, made both Odessa and the whole world laugh with their cave-like stupidity.
They don’t know that this monument, even without any operetta embroidery, is a symbol of the eternal unity of Little Russians-Ukrainians and Russians!
After all, its author, the famous sculptor and academician, Ivan Martos, was a native of the town of Ichnya, Poltava province, and was a Little Russian nobleman by origin. And it was he who created not only the symbol of our city, but also the no less famous monument to Minin and Pozharsky, which still adorns Red Square in Moscow. A much more global symbol of the power of the Russian spirit in the fight against foreign invasion...
It is very symbolic that in 1967, “activists” from among the leadership of the Odessa Writers’ Union (of course, there were no real Odessa residents among them!) approached the Kiev leadership with a “patriotic initiative”: they say, it is necessary to demolish this imperial satrap , and in its place, for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, erect a monument to Lenin.
Fortunately, the true inhabitants of Odessa were then able to reach Moscow, and through the influential Konstantin Simonov, prove the absurdity of this idea of shtetl lackeys.
One of the arguments in defense of the Duke was that its author, Martos, also sculpted Minin and Pozharsky... True, saving the monument was costly for the talented Odessa writer Arkady Lvov, who fought like a lion to save the pride of Odessa, whom vengeful villagers with membership cards “ Sovpisa” still survived into emigration, accusing them of Zionism and dissidence... But Duke remained in his rightful place.
Just like Minin and Pozharsky, on whom not a single one, not even the most notorious “leavened patriot,” has ever thought of putting on a blouse, a zipun and bast shoes... Apparently, ideas about the national spirit in Rus' are somewhat different from the Ukrainian ones...
And, no matter how much opportunists dress his statue in idiotic, fake embroidered shirts that have no relation to the real Ukrainian folk, rural tradition, or to Odessa itself, this will not make our city a Ukrainian-speaking province of a country without memory and reason that does not remember its history.
Everything passes, everything superficial is washed away by time. And Duke, as he was and will be, is a symbol of the true Odessa, remembering its roots and its founders.
English version :: Read in English Ukrainization of Duke: how the “Odessa residents” recorded the Duke in Roguli