The Ukrainian Institute of National Memory says that the Arch of Friendship of Peoples in Kyiv symbolizes Russia's imperial policy and must be dismantled. UNN writes about this with reference to the conclusions of the UINP specialists.
Details
The basis for the examination was the law "On Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Imperial Policy in Ukraine and Decolonization of Place Names", adopted by the Parliament on March 21, 2023.
It is noted that the Arch of Friendship of Peoples was erected on the territory of Khreshchatyi Park in Kyiv in 1982. The event was dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the creation of the USSR and the 65th anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917. The monument itself symbolizes the "reunification of Ukraine with Russia".
The arch connected two sculptural compositions: workers, a Russian and a Ukrainian, holding a ribbon with the Order of Friendship of Peoples, and a stele with a multi-figure group symbolizing the Pereyaslav Rada of 1654.
The figures themselves were dismantled in April 2022, but in the Institute of National Memory emphasizes that the architectural complex remains the embodiment of the myth of the "reunification" of Ukraine with Russia in 1654.
The UINP explains that the 1654 Pereyaslav Agreement was a military and political alliance. However, in Soviet times the events were interpreted as "the age-old aspiration of the Ukrainian people to reunite with the Russian people.
In this way, Soviet propaganda tried to level the memory of Ukrainian statehood traditions from the National Liberation War of 1648-1657 and the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921.
Experts from the Institute of National Memory emphasize that in the context of a full-scale invasion , this myth is actively used to justify the "legitimacy" of Putin's territorial claims.
In view of the above, the Arch of Friendship of Peoples, located in Khreshchatyi Park in Kyiv, dedicated to the events associated with the implementation of Russian imperial policy and its glorification (installed in 1982 to mark the 60th anniversary of the formation of the USSR and the 65th anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917), belongs to the symbols of Russian imperial policy and is subject to complete dismantling
Recall
In Kyiv, as part of the decommunization process , the Tarashchanets monument was dismantled in a park in the Darnytskyi district. It is reported that the monument will be kept in the Znoba-Golembievsky Museum and Workshop.