Eight monuments, removed from their pedestals in Dnipro by decision of the city council's executive committee, are currently stored on the territory of the municipal enterprise "Zoocontrol". The decision to demolish them was made in two waves - in December 2022 and early January 2023. Among the dismantled objects are monuments to Alexander Pushkin, Maxim Gorky, Valery Chkalov, Mikhail Lomonosov, Alexander Matrosov, Volodya Dubinin, Bulygin, as well as the Yukhym Pushkin tank-monument.
Chronology of dismantling
The first two monuments disappeared from the city space on December 16, 2022: on that day, the monument to Alexander Pushkin from Lesya Ukrainka Avenue (former Pushkin Avenue) and the monument to Volodya Dubinin were removed. Ten days later, on December 26, 2022, two more objects were dismantled - the monument to Maxim Gorky, which stood at the intersection of Dmytro Yavornytsky Avenue and Princess Olha Street, and the monument to Valery Chkalov from Lazarya Hloby Park in the Central District. It is noteworthy that the park itself bore Chkalov's name for a long time. The Bulygin monument was removed between late December 2022 and early January 2023.
At the beginning of the new year, the work continued. On January 4, 2023, the monument to Alexander Matrosov and the Yukhym Pushkin tank-monument, which previously had the status of a local historical monument, were simultaneously removed from the square. This wave of dismantling was completed by the monument to Mikhail Lomonosov: it was removed on January 6, 2023. The sculpture stood on Dmytro Yavornytsky Avenue, 19 in the Soborny District from June 25, 1971 - almost half a century. The height of the structure reached 7.7 meters, and its weight exceeded 30 tons.
What's next for the monuments
All eight objects are still at the "Zoocontrol" site. The question of their future fate is planned to be considered collegially, with the involvement of specialists. Local historians and historians are already discussing one of the possible concepts - the creation of a separate museum where these monuments will be exhibited as material evidence of a certain historical era.
The demolished objects cover different eras: among them are figures of the Soviet era, as well as symbols of the Russian Empire. The dismantling of the Lomonosov monument was the final point of this particular wave, but the decolonization of Dnipro's urban space did not stop there.
