Ukraine Removes Soviet Emblem from Massive Kyiv Monument

Ukrainian authorities began work to remove the Soviet Union’s hammer-and-sickle emblem from the Motherland Monument in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, July 30, in order to replace it with the Ukrainian coat of arms, authorities said.

The “main elements” of the Soviet emblem would be removed on August 1, according to officials. The Ukrainian trident symbol would be installed in its place in time for Independence Day celebrations on August 24, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture said.

The Soviet emblem, emblazoned on a shield held by monument’s “mother” statue, had been a part of the monument since it was erected in 1981. The shield would remain and the emblem would be transferred to the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, according to DIAM, Ukraine’s architecture and urban planning agency.

In a press release on July 13, DIAM said a poll of 800,000 Ukrainians in 2022 showed that 85 percent were in favor of the Soviet emblem being replaced by Ukrainian trident.

The removal comes as part of widespread “decommunization” efforts that began in 2015 but increased after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

On May 3, Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed a law allowing for the removal of any monuments celebrating the Communist Party, the Soviet Union, or any aspects of Russian or Soviet imperialism. Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko called the bill an “anti-Pushkin law”, after noting that hundreds of streets in Ukraine are named for the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

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