A red hood is placed on the head. In one hand hangs a rope with a noose. The monumental statue of the Russian empress Catherine the Great in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa looked quite different to those who passed it in the morning hours on Wednesday. – Is this a noose for Putin’s occupiers and his collaborators in the city council, asks the head of the local organization for national memorials, Sergii Kusaljuk, on Facebook. Should the statue be removed? There has long been a dispute over the statue of Catherine the Great in Odesa. Many have believed that it should be removed, because they perceive it as a symbol of old Russian imperialism towards Ukraine. The statue of Catherine the Great stands centrally in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa. Photo: Image from Facebook So far, the mayor of Odesa, Gennadij Trukhanov, has moved towards removing the statue. His reasoning has been that it is not right to remove historical monuments, even if today one may dislike the background for them standing where they stand. The statue is located in one of the central squares of Odesa, which leads directly to the Potemkin Stairs, known from Sergej Eisenstein’s film “Battleship Potemkin”. Potemkin Stairs in Odesa. It is known from one of the scenes in Sergej Eisenstein’s silent film “Battleship Potemkin”. Photo: BAARD O. AAKVAAG / NTB And both Catherine the Second, better known as Catherine the Great, and her lover and commander Grigory Potemkin, are central figures in the battle for history. A fight that goes on parallel to the war between Russia and Ukraine. The armored cruiser Potemkin was part of the Black Sea Fleet at the beginning of the 20th century. Photo: NTB Russia expanded It was during Catherine’s rule that large parts of what is today Ukraine came under Russian control. The city of Odesa was founded in 1794, two years before Catherine died. 16 years earlier, Grigorij Potemkin had founded Kherson at the mouth of the Dnieper River. It was also in Kherson that he was buried after his death in 1791. Grigory Potemkin conquered large areas in what is now Ukraine for the Russian empress Catherine the Great. Photo: Wikepedia That is why he has also got his own statue in this strategically important city, a few hundred kilometers north-east of Odesa. His grave has been in St. Catherine’s Church in Kherson. Until recently. Potemkin’s remains moved Empress Catherine’s statue thus lives an uncertain life in Odesa. And in Kherson, her lord has already ended up at the center of events. Both Potemkin’s remains and his statue have been removed from the city and transported across the Dnieper River. Kherson was captured by Russian forces already at the beginning of March this year, about a week after the Russian attack on Ukraine on 24 February. But for several months now this autumn, the Ukrainian forces have been slowly approaching the city. That is why the Russian-appointed leader in the area, Vladimir Saldo, said at the end of October that the remains and the statue of Potemkin have now been removed and “moved to a safe place”. Grave of Grigorij Potemkin in St. Catherine’s Church in Kherson. The remains of Potemkin have now been removed from the city. Photo: Wikepedia The same applies to statues of three other Russian army commanders from this period, Fyodor Ushakov, Alexander Suvorov and Vasiliy Margelov. Dispute over Potemkin’s remains According to the British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, it is the ninth time that someone has removed the remains of Potemkin from the tomb in St. Catherine’s Church. Montefiore, who has written a book about Grigory Potemkin, tells the New York Times that this has happened because Potemkin has been a controversial figure within Russia. Catherine the Great. This picture was painted by Dmitry Levitsky in 1783. The first time was only a few years after his death. Then Catherine’s son Paul 1 gave the order to remove the remains, because they were becoming a place of pilgrimage for Potemkin’s admirers. Even after the Bolsheviks took power in Russia in 1917, attempts were made to remove them. But each time they have returned to a room beneath the church itself in Kherson, according to Montefiore. In Ukraine, many see Potemkin in the same way as Catherine the Great; as symbols of Russian imperialism and desire to break Ukrainians’ ability to govern themselves. The dream of Novorossija The image of the empty pedestal where Potemkin usually stands in Kherson was quickly spread on social media. It was used as a visible sign that the Russian occupiers are now about to give up the entire northwestern bank of the Dnieper River. The statue of Grigory Potemkin has been central to Kherson, right up until now. Photo: Wikepedia Grigorij Potemkin was thus the man who, on behalf of his boss Catherine the Great, submitted to what was already at the time called Novorossija – New Russia. This is an expression that Russian President Vladimir Putin also uses as justification for why he has annexed this part of Ukraine, with military force. The forced incorporation is condemned by a large majority of the world’s countries. Only four of Russia’s close allies, including Syria and North Korea, have recognized the annexation, which violates international law. No agreement on what should happen Now the statue of Catherine the Great in Odesa may meet the same fate as that of Potemkin in Kherson – only with the opposite rationale. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the authorities in Odesa to consider whether it is possible to remove the statue, because it is associated with Russian imperialism and aggression. At a meeting of Odesa’s city council on 28 September, they were still unable to reach an agreement on what should happen to the disputed statue. There are many people in the mainly Russian-speaking city who do not want to break all ties with Russia, despite the fact that the population is more or less united in the fight against Russian aggression and Putin’s policies. Like the war, the battle for history is far from over.
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