“A spit in the history of the city”: nationalists demolished the monument to Pushkin in Kramatorsk

A local resident spoke about the fate of the last sculpture of the great poet in the city

“Drink coffee, the day after tomorrow is the New Year. Most likely, not yet without Russia in Ukraine, but everything will be – the time will come. Here is a place for their heroes, their culture and history. This is not a fight against monuments … ”- such a frankly mocking text was accompanied by a photo of the sculpture of Pushkin dismantled in Kramatorsk, “mayor” Alexei Goncharenko. (In the original Ukrainian text, the word “Russia” is written with a small letter – Auth.). A former deputy from the Party of Regions of Yanukovych, supported in the elections in 2020 by the “Opposition Platform “For Life”, and now the head of the local administration, demands “Ukrainian in Ukraine”, despite the fact that approximately 95% of the townspeople are Russian speakers.

At the moment, Kramatorsk is under the control of Kyiv, but the MK correspondent managed to communicate with a resident of the city and find out his opinion (on the rights of anonymity) about what happened.

“The dismantled monument was located in the park of the same name. The park is located in the central part of Kramatorsk, the so-called Sotsgorod. It was founded in the thirties of the last century (at that time the city was being built) by workers of the Novokramatorsky Mashinostroitelny Zavod. It is quite logical that a monument to the poet was erected in the Pushkin park. However, it was a different sculpture. The former did not survive the Great Patriotic War. After the war, we had an art workshop, which was directed by Anton Nikiforovich Netyazhenko. A huge number of monuments were made in the workshop; they adorned the parks and streets of Kramatorsk and neighboring settlements. The work of Anton Netyazhenko appeared at one of the entrances to the park,” our interlocutor said.

According to him, the sculptural images made by the Netyazhenko workshop turned out to be short-lived. Pushkin was the last to survive to this day. But it has already collapsed:

– To the best of his ability, it was restored, painted. The bust was cared for by park workers, the townspeople brought flowers. Today the mayor made a spit in the history of the city. Most of our people do not welcome this decision of the authorities. But there are those who are ready to abandon the Russian cultural heritage. And I know them! And my opinion on this issue is this: we need new monuments! And I would like to see a new monument to Pushkin in Kramatorsk!