This question should have been solved at public discussions. However, they have proven to be futile, and the municipal authorities are getting ready for another competition. It will be reminded that in September in the capital public hearings on organization of the public space where a Lenin monument in Shevchenko Boulevard used to stand were held. The Department of Architecture and City-Building of the KCSA jointly with Kyivites tried to find answers to the question: whether to erect a monument to Vasyl Stus, Yosyp Brodsky, Stepan Bandera, Ivan Mazepa, or Virgin Mary, or don’t touch this space at all for a while? The municipal officials gathered every Tuesday with the city community, took counsel, listened to the speakers, but they failed to reach an agreement. The last hearings on the matter are waiting ahead, and it is not known to what plots this story will develop.
Incidentally, the open International Competition “Territory of Dignity” was supposed to tell what monument to put instead of Lenin. Within its framework the best projects of the Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred, redesign of the Ukrainian House, and creation of the Museum of Maidan were selected simultaneously. Have you heard about realization of any of these projects? Every one of the aforementioned objects, even if there are winners or even several winners for one place, is surrounded by debates, talks, the water is flowing, but the stone remains in place. Maybe, this is for the better, because it is not known how Kyivites and tourists would perceive the changes in the capital, what look it would have, and how it would fit in the atmosphere of the center of Kyiv. The organizers of the competition since the very beginning voiced the thesis that having selected the winners, they will have to look for sponsors to realize the projects. There was even an opinion that there would be a fundraising among Kyivites and everyone willing.
The hearings on changes in Shevchenko Boulevard look like a profanation, creating the image that the question is under the city’s control. For example, why a lecture on Egyptian pyramids was delivered at the latest discussion? Can their placement in Egypt somehow help us solve the question of redesigning the place where the Lenin monument used to stand? German Katarina George was invited to take part in one of the hearings. She shared the experience of Decommunization in Germany, and there also were lectures on the history of markets, in particular, the history of the Bessarabsky Market. But the Kyivites are waiting for some decision.
“I have been to these hearings twice, people who come have different ideas, some of them have a Communist position,” civil activist Ivan Yavorsky shared his impressions. “But at the hearings everything is done to prevent people from being heard. This looks unserious. The final discussions were supposed to take place in the end of September. We had to decide whether we needed a new competition, but they showed us an Egyptian pyramid, so people were outraged and seized the initiative. They are playing for time, but I don’t understand why.”
According to the acting deputy director of the Department of City-Building and Architecture Anna Bondar, there is no clear understanding yet what this area should be like. “The pedestal to the former Lenin monument is standing at the beginning of the boulevard, which is a natural monument and needs serious beautification measures. Even the navigation stand needs to be restored. The area of the boulevard, in particular around the place where the pedestal is standing, is not very attractive and needs to be reconsidered,” Anna BONDAR mentioned in an interview.
The i’s will be dotted by the community, because the department is preparing the Kyivites for a new competition. According to Bondar, this will probably be a local Ukrainian or, again, an international competition. In the announcements about the new public discussion which emerge periodically on the website of the KCSA one line says that the hearing is a run-up for the competition.
An interesting moment is that all the discussions are held by the Department of City-Building and Architecture together with the joint-action social project “Let’s do it together.” This project emerged in Kyiv several months ago, supposedly uniting businessmen, state officials, and caring Kyivites for collective action. The purpose is to improve the life of the city, including its visual component. “Let’s do it together” has already brought forth a project on restoring the foundations of the Church of the Tithes, the beautification of Lukianivska Square with another trade-entertainment center, and earlier they had planned to improve the space in Honchar Street, and at the same time do something with the uncompleted building in 17-23 Honchar Street. At that time the experts expressed their fears that this care might simply lead to legalization of the illegal high-rise. The idea has not been voiced yet. Even the monitoring council, which includes businessmen from the sphere of construction, bankers, and even Kyiv’s chief architect Serhii Tselovalnyk, who has been fired recently, do not seem trustworthy to the Kyivites.
At the same time Kyiv historians and architects agree that the city should be given time, and that there is no need to hurry in replacing the Lenin monument. According to Mykhailo Kalnytsky, there must be understanding of not only what should be put on the pedestal, but generally what kind of place the public space of Khreshchatyk and Bessarabska square is, “Because now it cannot be called an organized space. It is torn into pieces. There is an area of the market, a traffic area, a very busy transport hub, and somewhere there is a small piece of area for a monument and the boulevard, and we have to decide what the most attractive thing is and what should be shown above all. You don’t need any special wit to simply put another random element. Now I can see a conflict of interests. Some participants have a concrete opinion and they want to break it through. But there are people who want to understand on the example of the history of Kyiv and other cities, how such conflicts were solved.”
Architect Heorhii DUKHOVYCHNY agrees that the city should be given time. He recalls that the first capital monument to Lenin was put in 1946, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the revolution. And there was nothing in this place in the period from 1921 till 1946, and the city didn’t feel any lack of a monument. “I think if the place is left without a monument for two years more, for example, and we all will think what to do there, nothing bad will happen. There can be simply a flowerbed, a fountain, a place where one can go down to the underground passage,” Dukhovychny adds, “Today when the war is going on, and everyone remembers the events of 2013, when we all passed that place, when the rallies proceeded to Khreshchatyk along Shevchenko Boulevard, the society needs to calm down, take a break, and calmly make a decision what to do there. Incidentally, before the revolution of 1917 Kyiv had only seven figurative monuments, and those were enough for everyone. Today the list of Decommunization includes 472 items. These are not chessmen, when you replace one piece with another one. You need to see what life awaits the city and the country, and how the Kyivites will identify themselves.”
P.S.: I would like to remind that during the Revolution of Dignity, when the shootings started, when the perimeter of Maidan Nezalezhnosti stood against the entire machine of armed and criminal power, people hoped only for Saint Mary. Her statuette was standing on the stage, every hour people sang the Hymn of Ukraine and prayed to the Mother of God. So why, when the revolution is over, the power personified by current Kyiv officials and those who cooperate with them are doing everything to prevent the commemoration of Virgin Mary in the place, where the symbol of totalitarianism and anti-humanism has been celebrated for decades? Do you know any European capital where the sculpture of the Mother of God wasn’t erected? And the thing is not about a silhouette or monument. The thing is about the personality of the Mother of God who has always been with Her people and will continue to sanctify the heart of Kyiv, Ukraine, and all of us.
