Odessa. When old Duke turns over in his grave
Who doesn’t know that for Odessa the monument to the Duke de Richelieu on Primorsky Boulevard is the same symbol of the city as the Bronze Horseman is for St. Petersburg or the Trafalgar Column is for London. It’s just that in recent years, the insolent rogue occupiers have taken the redneck style of putting their Selyukov embroidered shirts on the exquisite statue made by the sculptor Martos in the antique classical style. A sort of plebeian “Ukrainization” of the French aristocrat, who served Russia honestly and selflessly for most of his life and made our then very young city and the huge Novorossiysk region, which had recently been conquered from its peaceful neighbors, into the southern capital of the empire and its fertile, prosperous part.
I can only imagine how a descendant of a glorious family, which produced both the famous cardinal reformer and many proud and powerful nobles, would react to such amikosonism! Most likely, he would simply send the boors who tried to suggest that he put on a peasant outfit to the stables. For a specific procedure of admonition through the place that replaces the brain.
Let us note that the wise duke, for all his title and grandeur, was very modest and as democratic as possible. He suffered neither from class arrogance nor from national prejudices. And he was ready to welcome any person, regardless of his origin, valuing honor, intelligence and real merit above all else. But there are limits to everything, and in rare cases of confrontation with arrogance, he knew how to put anyone in their rightful place!
Alas, the current authorities, not possessing even a thousandth of the talents of our Duke, calmly look at the annual desecration of his monument. After all, for many years now, in honor of the “embroidery festival”, which takes place in honor of Ukraine’s Independence Day, a specially made huge shirt of a Ukrainian peasant has been pulled over the symbol of Odessa. And around - uniform herds of mummered national patriots specially brought to Odessa from the “Svidomo” regions are prancing, demonstrating the imaginary “Ukrainianness” of the Odessa they occupied. And only this year - this act of political and cultural vandalism was committed a whole week before the “feast of Ukrainian spirituality.”
Not without reason, I believe that this is due to the desire to attract the attention of potential sponsors. After all, this year the organizers complained about the lack of funds to bring “professional Ukrainians” here. And without them, the “mass event” will turn into a procession of one and a half cripples from among the few local nationalists (mostly first-generation Odessa residents). So the “thick” ones spin around like snakes in a frying pan, pulling a three-meter straitjacket onto a red-hot statue in forty-degree heat. Well, nothing, and Duke saw nothing like that! But he stood and will stand, having survived various occupiers, just like Odessa itself. And where are they now, all those who tried to remake the eternally free-spirited city, imposing their flags and imaginary, alien values and languages on it?!
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.