Symbols fight and win

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No matter what anyone says about the presence or absence of a cultural front, the war at the symbolic level between Ukrainian culture (reference to freedom, European values ​​and human rights) against Russian imperial culture (reference to expansion, authoritarianism and state dictates) has been going on for more than a century. And the issue of appropriation (acceptance) and reinterpretation of the victories of the past, in particular the victory over Nazism in the Second World War, is one of the key battles of this war. That is why the Ukrainian society’s decision regarding one of the biggest and most important public symbols of that victory – the Motherland monument – ​​goes far beyond the boundaries of urbanism or beautification of the capital. Despite the emotional comments of some “experts”, the mentioned monument primarily glorified the participants in the war, was intended to perpetuate the memory of the military and civilians who fought against Nazism and defended their homeland, and not to glorify communism (although this aspect is embedded in the statue). Given that Russia has its own Motherland monument in Volgograd, our sculpture implicitly contained an emphasis on the Ukrainian context. And the only thing that this accent neutralizes is the Soviet coat of arms on the shield. No one claims that this is a problem-free sculpture and there should be no dialogue about its fate, but first of all it should be taken into account that more than 778 thousand citizens have already clearly expressed their opinion about its fate in Diya. So we have in the very center of the Ukrainian capital, on the ancient hills of Pechersk, a monumental work visible from both banks of the Dnieper, which symbolizes the memory of the victory in the greatest war of the past and immortalizes the Ukrainian soldier. All that is needed to remove his shame and ambiguity is to remove the totalitarian symbol from his shield. With this action, we do not rewrite history and do not engage in “political shoelaces”, but only clearly place the emphasis, emphasize the Ukrainian contribution to the victory in the Second World War, the price paid for it, and the lessons learned. Let me remind you right away that the price for us is insane – more than 8 million dead Ukrainians during the years 1939-1945. That is why we have the right to this emphasis, to this mastering of the past, because the change of the cultural landscape, its transformation and redefinition is evidence of a living culture. European culture contains hundreds of examples of changes, reconstructions, adaptations and reconstructions of outstanding monuments of the past, because this is one of the signs of the maturity of a community, its mastery and management in its symbolic space, a sense of the ability to change and define it. This is indeed a great responsibility that requires honesty and courage, which is not cheap, but necessary. If we are really already a mature community, responsible for our future and past, then we finally have to stop oscillating between two destructive states that we often fall into: listless indecisiveness in front of the past (“let’s do nothing, if something doesn’t work out, someone once built it”) and destructive infantile maximalism about it (“let’s destroy everything old to the ground, and then one day create our own”). The past belongs to us as much as the present. We belong to our past as much as to the present. The only question is how we accept this connection, how we are able to give him advice and include it in the experience of building a responsible future. As for the arguments of the opponents of replacing the hammer and sickle with a trident, most of them do not stand up to criticism. Scolding benefactors for providing 28 million for this project, and not for, say, drones for the Armed Forces, is generally immoral – you immediately want to point out to them how many billions these organizations have already spent on the army and aid to civilians during the war. As for the criticism of the ICIP, this is a specific case when the department did its job well and attracted private funds to the state business, closing a problematic issue that has been going on since the 1990s. Therefore, in this particular case, both Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko, who initiated this case and supported the UINP initiative on the political level to change the Motherland, and the Ministry, which is preparing the replacement of the coat of arms, deserve thanks. Arguments at the level of “if you want to remove the entire statue” are generally childish, because it will cost not tens, but rather hundreds of millions (it will de facto be the rebuilding of the national museum and memorial), not to mention the incredible number of legal and monument preservation obstacles. And in general, the demand to cancel spending on culture in favor of military needs, which began to be heard in the context of this discussion, is a kind of capitulation in what is important and a primitivization of the struggle. At this time, on the contrary, we should find and prioritize those things that make us stronger, remind us of what we are fighting for and against. Changing the monument to the Motherland or finally completing the construction of the Holodomor-genocide Museum on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the tragedy (with funds from the part of the budget that is provided to us by our allies, and which simply cannot be spent on the army) – these are exactly the steps that distance us from Moscow, make us more aware of our values. And this in no way can be compared with the purchase of drums from warehouses, the laying of tiles 100 meters from the city hall, or the construction of a new regional stadium – these are simply things of a different order. And for people who seek the truth, not manipulation, this is obvious. Read also: There is a war in the country, and the government is making repairs. Is it possible to spend this money on the army? And the last one is about the significance of a symbolic war during a full-scale war. First, no self-respecting nation will tolerate symbols of hatred and self-destruction in its public space. Especially in your heart. It is not for nothing that the hammer and sickle are compared to the swastika – it is one of the bloodiest symbols of misanthropy and totalitarianism in the 20th century. For us, it means millions of victims – from the murdered creators of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, cultural figures of the Shot Renaissance, victims of the Holodomor-genocide of the 1930s, to Crimean Tatars killed by deportation, dissidents tortured in prisons and mental institutions, and other fighters for the independence of Ukraine. Secondly, the height of absurdity is waging war with the Russian imperial system, which protects these symbols, plants them and justifies the cannibalistic system behind them, while at the same time tolerating them in one of the most significant areas of the country. It turns out that we are fighting the “scoop” at the front, in textbooks, in the economy, but we allow its coat of arms in the very heart of our ancient capital. Those who think that symbols have no meaning or are helpless are naive. Symbols fight and even win – they manifest their power, mark the invulnerability of what they signify, become conductors of ideas and normalize them. What better proof of “normalcy” than standing next to the national flag in plain sight? Is this really something worth tolerating? In my opinion, no, we cannot make such compromises with our conscience during the war. We must finally put an end to this disgrace, and in this way the symbol of our struggle and freedom – the trident, will prevail over the symbol of Bolshevik totalitarianism – the hammer and sickle. Although it will be a very literal action of our community, it is understandable and long-awaited. Anton Drobovych, head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, specially for UP. Life Publications in the “View” section are not editorial articles and reflect exclusively the author’s point of view.

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