A state cannot exist without symbols. They not only unite people but also enhance them over daily routine, giving them a chance to talk tОte-З-tОte with history. However, these symbols should be clearly ours, in some cases even gained through sufferings as it was with the Ukrainian small national emblem or national flag. None of this can be applied to the current monument project. The main thing is that those for whom it supposedly will be constructed will not accept it. Some say that they have already seen a similar monument in Budapest, others are concerned about the amount of money that will be spent on God knows what in these days when, going to the hospital, one has to take medicine and bed-sheets along. In this situation, the monument will become just another point of intersection for the political interests. Monuments have to come into existence at the right time. There was a play in Soviet times, Monument to Oneself, where the main character started to prepare a monument for himself a little earlier than necessary. Let us wait. A historical personage once said, better let people say, “Why there is no monument to him?” than “Why is there?” Certainly, there is an argument that later on people will accept what will be already constructed. Let us recall the struggle with Khreshchatyk (Kyiv’s main street) reconstruction that now has become history, or St. Michael’s Cathedral renovation or renewal. However, there is one serious argument against in this case. Neither Khreshchatyk nor the cathedral changed the city’s main outlines. This project, on the contrary, strives actively to take its place in another list including the monument to the Fatherland strolling around with sword in hand in search for its compatriots, or Lenin Museum (even after changing its name to Ukrainian Home it remains an example of a most unsuccessful building which also caused the destruction of a truly beautiful place in Kyiv). Perhaps if nothing good came of the project, we can and should wait. A plain, bureaucratic monument in which everything is as it should be, but lacking the main thing, an artistic symbol that we are ready to pass to our descendants, will not serve for Kyiv’s embellishment.
