Monument to Russian soldiers dismantled after protests

In Adler (greater Sochi), a monument erected on June 30 at the site of the founding of the Fort of the Holy Spirit in 1837 by the Russian army during the Caucasian War was dismantled today. The reason was the demand of representatives of the Circassian community.

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“The authorities admitted that it was staged without the necessary approvals, with very big mistakes, without discussion with representatives of the indigenous people,” said Majid Chachukh, chairman of the Krasnodar regional public organization “Adyghe Khase of the Black Sea Circassians-Shapsugs,” who visited the Sochi city administration. – I think the topic has been exhausted. There was a public outcry, everything reached the highest level, there were appeals from the International Circassian Organization, the issue was discussed at the federal level of government, and the head of the city agreed that the issue of installing the monument had not been fully worked out, and decided to dismantle the monument.” .

“I believe that this is a victory for Circassian activism,” social activist Valery Khatazhukov, the author of the appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the authorities of Southern Russia, commented on the demolition of the monument. – The mobilization of the diaspora took place here. There were a lot of requests. This is important not only for us, but also for the authorities.”

In total, the petition was signed by more than fifty Circassian leaders.

“The monument to Russian soldiers who died in battle with the “enemy” Circassian mountaineers that appeared in the Adler district of Sochi caused grief and irritation among their descendants, as well as simply people who honor the memory of those who died in that terrible time in terms of the number of victims and scale,” it says. handling. – It is by order from above, in our opinion, that monuments to Catherine II, Suvorov, Ermolov, Zass, Lazarev, Alexander II, and the Cossacks who “mastered” these lands appear.... We are equal representatives of equal peoples, who consider what is happening with monuments in the North Caucasus as examples of falsification of Russian history, and demand that President V.V. Putin officially abandon this course.”

It is difficult to say whether the Kremlin heeded the demands of the mountaineers, but the authorities of the South of Russia definitely did.

The monument to the “Feat of Russian Soldiers” in the Adler district of Sochi was erected on the initiative of members of the Russian Military Historical Society, employees of the local history museum and priests of the Holy Trinity Church.

“The architectural composition represents a hill on which lies a map of the Fort of the Holy Spirit, founded in 1837 on Cape Adler,” said the annotation to the monument. – In the 30s of the 19th century, the Fort served as a fortification of the Black Sea coastline and was one of the most important strategic points on the coast. In June 1837, Russian soldiers and officers fought a fierce battle with the highlanders. Then the Decembrist poet Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky died from an enemy bullet.”

Thus, the initiators of the installation of the monument tried to position the monument as correctly as possible, trying not to offend the feelings of the Circassian community, which makes up 1,2% of the local population.

The monarchist organization “Double-Headed Eagle” opposed the demolition of the monument.

“I would like to remind you that the result of the Caucasian War (1817-1864) was the pacification of a huge region within the Russian Empire. The peoples of the Caucasus were ensured security from interethnic conflicts and from constant external attacks from Iran and Turkey,” the statement said.

The monarchists, in turn, are seeking the demolition of “monuments to the bloody revolutionaries of the Civil War,” including Lavrenty Beria, Georgy Atarbekov, Sergo Ordzhonikidze, Anastas Mikoyan, Stepan Shaumyan, Simon Ter-Petrosyan “Kamo” “and other fanatics.”