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Katherine Monument
From 2odessa.com The most comprehensive guide to Odessa, Ukraine
At the junction of Ekaterininskaya (Екатерининская) and Sabaniyev Most (Сабанеев мост). A few meters from the Primorsky Stairs and the Duke de Richelieu Monument.
Russian: Памятник Екатерине Also spelled Yekaterina or Catherine.
The Catherine statue was an imitation of a similar monument in Saint Petersburg. Remarkably, the original Saint Petersburg's Katherine the Great statue was never demolished, and still stands today.
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History of the square
Originally this site had a beautiful monument to Queen Katherine, errected in 1900, designed by sculptors M.P. Popov (М.П. Попов), B.V. Edwards (Б.В. Эдуардc), L.D. Menzione (Л.Д. Менционе), and architect Y.M. Dmitrienko (Ю.М. Дмитриенко).[1][2]
After the revolution, the monument was dismantled on May 1, 1920. Fragments of the statue, including the bust of Katherine and the base of the monument, can be found in the courtyard of the History and Local Lore Museum.
The street was renamed Karl Marx (Карл Маркс), and a plaster bust of Karl Marx was errected in 1921. This bust was blown down before World War II and never replaced.[3][4]
There was also a monument to Lev Tolstoy (Лев Толстой) and Adam Mickiewicz (Адам Мицкевич) at the same location.[4][5]
In 1965, on the 60th anniversary of Potemkin Sailor mutiny, the Potemkin Sailor Monument was unveiled.
Reconstruction
In the summer of September 2007, during a flurry of monument rearrangements, the Potemkin Sailor statue was moved to the Industrial Port and the current restored Katrina statue was put in its place.
The statue sparked a fierce fighting in Odessa, with riot police confronting Cossack demonstrators in the street after midnight.
The members of the revived medieval Cossack movement were enraged about the resurrection of a monument to the 18th-century Russian empress -- which city officials felt was an important step for addition to the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage sites.[6][7]
The modern-day heirs of the Cossacks and Ukrainian nationalists, vilify Catherine as a foreign despot who crushed Ukraine's limited autonomy at the time, and disbanded units of their celebrated predecessors. The group stated that immortalizing the memory of the mortal enemy of Ukraine Yekaterina II was similar to "establishing a monument to Hitler in Israel".[7]
In August, the Western Ukrainian Lvov [Lviv] regional legislature asked President Viktor Yushchenko to fire the mayor of Odessa and to dissolve the city's legislature because Odessa restored the monument. West Ukrainian politicians protested that the restoration of the monument was a demonstration of hatred to the Ukrainian nation. The Russian empress was called "the murderer of the Ukrainian freedom."[8]
The monument was supposed to be unveiled on Odessa's 213 birthday on September 2, 2007 but because of the violence and protests, the monument was unveiled on the 27 of October (27 октября).[7]
Photos
Photo before World War II with no statue, from the History and Local Lore museum. |
Historic postcard |
Historic postcard |
Statues previously in the History and Local Lore museum courtyard. Both were from the original Katherine Monument which were added to the restored monument. |
Photo without the men flanking it, summer 2007. |
Sign announcing the reconstruction, September 2007 |
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Base during construction |
Statues being added during construction, August 8, 2007 |
Saint Petersburg Katherine/Catherine the Great statue. From Petersburgcity.com |
Ekaterininskaya 7 Екатерининская |
Ekaterininskaya 7 |
See also
Notes
- ^ www.odessa.ua/news/10699/ (In Russian--Use this Google translate, or alternatively, babelfish)
- ^ www.misto.odessa.ua/index.php?u=gorod/istoriya/ekater (In Russian--Use this Google translate, or alternatively, babelfish)
- ^ According to the History and Local Lore Museum photographs and curators.
- ^ a b www.segodnya.ua/useful/tourism/271289.html (In Russian--Use this Google translate, or alternatively, babelfish)
- ^ www.izvestia.ru/ukraina/article3109783/ (In Russian--Use this Google translate, or alternatively, babelfish)
- ^ The experts of UNESCO, upon a close examination of Odessa’s historical cultural monuments, concluded that they did not possess conspicuous cultural value. From The Persuasive Power of the Odessa Myth
- ^ a b c Youtube video of the event in Russian, showing the fighting.
*Popeski, Ron, August 29, 2007, Catherine the Great sparks Cossack ire, Reuters
*September 13, 2007 Monument to Russian empress, UNIAN - ^ www.odessaglobe.com/news_english/201/
Continue your virtual tour by walking to the Katherine the Great Fresco
