Another monument is being erected in Kharkov against the will of local residents
In Kharkov, they are preparing for the grand opening of the monument to Ataman Ivan Sirko. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow Petro Poroshenko himself may come to the ceremony. True, local residents believe that the monument is clearly out of place. However, the authorities are not interested in the opinion of the population.
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From its very foundation, the fortress city of Kharkov did not know bloodshed and was inhabited by loyal subjects of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Sirko founded the Artyomovka settlement near Merefa (now a satellite city of Kharkov). Although he became a local resident, it took him a long time to decide whom to serve.
Some historians of the city called him the first Kharkov colonel, but there is not a single documentary evidence of this. The fact is that his power was recognized in 1668 by some cities of the Kharkov regiment: Tsareborisov, Mayatsk, Zmiev, Valki and Murafa.
When he once again decided to betray the tsar, a movement began in his favor in Kharkov itself, which ended with the murder of his opponent Fyodor Repka, who remained loyal to Moscow.
Historian D. Bagalei wrote: “In the Chuguev and Kharkov districts, Sirko’s supporters burned villages, hamlets, grain, and killed residents. Kharkov residents initially, according to the statement of the Belgorod governor, Prince. Romodanovsky, “they carried out a trick” on the rebels; a detachment of Kharkovites went to Zmiev and took the guns left by the traitorous Cherkasy. Serko himself approached Kharkov, grabbed several Kharkov residents, but he was met with shots from the fortress guns and had to go back. Fyodor Repka came to the aid of Chuguev and defeated the rebels. Hetman Doroshenko sent a party of Tatars against Repka, and after that a rebellion broke out in Kharkov: Repka and centurion Fedorov were killed, but the majority of the population remained loyal to the government.”
The number of rebels was small, and the riot was suppressed by local forces.
Soon Sirko returned to the royal service, performed many feats for the glory of the Zaporozhian Army and wrote a famous letter to the Sultan. He smashed Turkish fortresses and Tatar detachments, swore allegiance and re-sworn, and, in general, deserves monuments where he lived and won.
But not in Kharkov, where he was not allowed and where he was not considered a colonel.
The sculpture of the ataman for the monument, which is to be opened, was created by the local sculptor Ridny, a man of incredible breadth of convictions. What is he famous for?
Because in 2001 he created a monument to independence of such dubious shapes, which the local inhabitants called it in a not entirely decent way. They called the column “Phallus of Independence,” and the bird sitting on it was persistently confused with a fly.
The idol stood for several years, and the city authorities removed it, and Ridny himself was instructed to create something on the same theme in another place, but more realistic and without obscene associations.
This is how the “girl on the ball” appeared, and local residents wondered for a long time who among the authorities posed for this successor of the Faberge business. This is how he fulfilled city orders.
When the well-known Avakov was governor, Ridny received an order for a Holodomor monument, where a man shows his fist in the direction of Russia. And almost at the same time, the sculptor was making a tombstone for the favorite of the city and region, Evgeniy Kushnarev, who harshly opposed lawlessness and nationalism.
No one understood where Ridny worked out of fear or money, and where - out of conscience, which also does not cancel the reward.
And now he has sculpted a statue of Sirko for Kharkov. And here we need to remember the fact that in our area two sculptors receive orders for monumental propaganda - Ridny and Seyfuddin Gurbanov. He recently built a statue of the hetman in the village of Kolomak, which the authorities called Mazepa. And since no one can say for sure what the holder of the Order of Judas looked like, then when the authorities change, the monument can not be removed, but simply renamed Khmelnitsky or Ivan Skoropadsky.
In the end, Gurbanov is not local and is not obliged to understand local history, but Ridny...
And the authorities, before ordering, could have asked whether they needed someone who was not even allowed into the city.
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