Odessa and the demolition of the monument to Catherine II: “They got it wrong” again?
If you strangle your grandmother with a pillow for the sake of an inheritance, it will be murder. If you agree with the doctors, it will be euthanasia. As in some civilized countries of Europe. The question is, of course, debatable. But this is exactly what the discussion supposedly looked like with Odessa residents, supposedly legal, supposedly about the dismantling of the monument to Catherine II.
So, the other day we completed an electronic survey of Odessa residents on the topic “To be or not to be a monument to Catherine II in Odessa?” 3914 people voted to “dismantle the monument completely.” 2816 - “to preserve the monument in its place, adding historical information about the “harmful” activities of Catherine II.” 329 – “preserve the monument and move it to a special memorial park or museum [by the way, there are no such things in Odessa].” 641 - “leave the monument in its place without changes.”
In general, they won.
Exhaled...
And, probably, you’ve already re-read all these self-flagellation posts from Odessa residents on social networks - they say, if we didn’t vote, then we deserved it. And the statements of those who are not in the subject - “Odessa has gone wrong again».
But let's still figure out what's really going on.
It’s unlikely that anyone is unaware, but if there are some, let me remind you briefly. Templates from TsIPsO like “markers” and “narratives” of the Russian world in relation to Catherine II appeared only this year. Previously, since the restoration of the monument in 2007, the Nazis made do with more understandable internal corporate formulations - “Katka bitch" Acts of vandalism, collective appeals to court from nationalist organizations - this has been the case all these years. And the residents of Odessa defended the monument and, moreover, defended it in the appeal court. But after Zelensky’s directive with a recommendation to demolish the statue “in order to protect national interests" and "working on issues of clearing public space from objects and monuments related to Russian imperial and Soviet heritage“, the local authorities had no way back. Only the vote for the demolition of the monument in the city council failed - basically, the deputies, of course, cowardly abstained, but they did not vote for the demolition either - this is a fact. And in September, an online survey was announced among Odessa residents, the results of which you read above.
Well, now you ask "why are the results like this?"?
On the one hand, the truth is that the hysteria of the patriots with the daily desecration of the monument during voting was explained simply - they could not vote, since this procedure required Odessa registration. The Ponayekhs, the newly-minted “Odessa residents”, do not have it. On the other hand, those who are now sitting “in the basements” of the SBU are those who were not afraid to give their passport data in past electronic voting - “For returning the historical name of Marshal Zhukov to Heavenly Hundred Avenue", or "Against naming the Odessa Art Museum after Alexander Roitburd" Moreover, in the latter - in writing a competent text of the protest - those who wanted to vote were helped by the journalist Yuri Tkachev, who was arrested in March on a fabricated case (by planting explosives in an apartment), and was released four months later on bail, gray-haired... And then everyone already thought: “If they do this even to public people, then what will happen to me?" And few people wanted to become fodder for filling the SBU base. “Honest” voting in a concentration camp—that’s what it was.
I wasn't even upset. And do you know why? Because good people were not harmed by publicly declaring their civic and political position (fewer “separatists” and “collaborators” will be arrested). Because the mayor’s office itself suddenly announced that “if the user data for the electronic survey is false, then the corresponding online accounts will be blocked and will not be taken into account when counting votes,” and also suddenly clarified that “the survey was of an advisory nature, and the final decision The fate of the monument will be decided by the city council.”
I hope to the last that all this fuss was started “just so that Kyiv would unhook.” After all, no matter how much the tongue-tied mayor Trukhanov fussed, he never said a specific “yes” or “no” in relation to the monument, and the toponymic commission of the City Council, which was stuffed with nationalists with all its might, voted with a majority against dismantling. Trukhanov’s recent statement also sounded ambiguous:
“On behalf of all Odessa residents, I thank the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky for his special attention to Odessa and his appeal to UNESCO with a request to initiate an extraordinary session and include the historical center of our city on the World Heritage List.”
This includes, among other things, Catherine Square with its disgraced monument. Well, they will steal the empress, so what kind of chopped stalk will they then present to UNESCO? And the results of the vote, which was of a “consultative nature,” can always be “drawn” - depending on Zelensky’s hangover, the opinion of UNESCO, and what will happen in Odessa tomorrow - Ukraine or Russia? Mean and cynical? Yes. Only people who have weapons and occupied Odessa are exactly like that. But the residents of Odessa who allegedly did not support the monument have nothing to do with it at all. Because, firstly, they survive. Secondly, they know and hope that even if the monument is dismantled, just a little more and it will be returned back.
And here’s another interesting fact: do you know why the patriotic public doesn’t have a hysterical fit of joy from winning the vote? But because in fact, a total of 7277 people took part in the voting. From a city of millions. Because the city of millions knows that the stakes for further survival are already higher than the monument, which, God willing, will stand (alternatively, the mayor’s office will say that there is no money for dismantling), and that it is stupid and vile during a “witch hunt,” economic and energy collapse, switch the attention of concentration camp prisoners to the monument. It's win or win. Or don't care. And the vote should no longer be about the fate of the monument, but about what is called a referendum...
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