A bust of Wrangel was removed less than a month ago in Rostov

In Rostov-on-Don, a monument to one of the leaders of the White movement, Baron Pyotr Wrangel, was dismantled. It was installed at the beginning of November in the building of the local cadet school. The dismantling was reported by the local branch of the CPRF. Communists opposed the installation of the monument, calling it “ideological sabotage.”

Later, a photo and video of the empty pedestal appeared on Telegram channels. It is not known what happened to Wrangel’s bust, reports 161.ru. The Don State University of Technology, which oversees the cadet school, refused to comment on the dismantling.

The installation of the monument, and then the demand to dismantle it led to disputes in the camp of supporters of the war with Ukraine. Some of them, declaring their right-wing and anti-communist views, defended the monument, arguing that the general was a Russian patriot. Others – communists and leftists – demanded to remove the monument, calling Wrangel a “mercenary of the Entente”. Both referred to the events in Ukraine and propaganda stamps of the Kremlin, interpreting them in favor of their position, wrote the website Kavkaz.Realii.

The bust of Wrangel appeared on the initiative of the “Educational Society named after Alexander III” – this is a public organization of the monarchist type from St. Petersburg. The “Don” brigade, which participated in the war with Ukraine, allegedly collected the half a million rubles necessary for the installation. The sculpture of the “enemy of Soviet power” outraged the Don communists, who held pickets against the “symbol of White Guards and fascism.” The State Duma deputy from the Rostov Region, Elena Drapeko, also needed to demolish the monument. In response, the city administration stated that the bust was installed without approval.

Orthodox activists came out in support of the bust: more than 700 people signed an open appeal to the president. The Moscow-born rapper Roma Zhigan, who called communists “fanatics and followers of ghouls and terrorists”, also needed to save the monument.

• Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel (1878–1928) is a Russian military figure, major general (since January 1917), one of the leaders of the White Movement during the Civil War and during emigration. Commander-in-Chief of the Anti-Bolshevik Armed Forces of the South of Russia (April – May 1920), Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army (May – November 1920). He led the evacuation of the Russian army and the civilian population from Crimea in November 1920. In September 1924, Wrangel issued an order to create the Russian Communal Union (ROVS), which in the mid-1920s united up to 100,000 soldiers of the White Army. Buried in Belgrade.
• In the annexed Crimea, in Kerch, in 2016, a monument to Wrangel was opened – on the territory of an Orthodox church.
• The publication “Mozhem osvrytsya” calculated that there are now more than 100 monuments to the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in Russia, and 95 of them were erected under the rule of Vladimir Putin, and the pace of construction of monuments doubled after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.