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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31755 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 2, 2023

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A recent event that I’m sure fully counts as culture war is the official removal in Odessa of the monument to the city’s founders, mainly Catherine the Great. The justification, which is rather easy to predict, is that Catherine was a perpetrator of Moskal imperialism who repressed Ukrainian patriots (supposedly they already existed back then), committed cultural genocide and erased Ukrainian nationhood (which obviously we’re also supposed to believe existed back then). There isn’t much to comment on this, I think (though I’ll again point out that Odessa would never have existed in the first place without Catherine), but an educated redditor was eager to point out* the curious fact that the removed monument is actually a replica erected in 2007, largely as a response to the events of the so-called Orange Revolution, as the original was removed (and supposedly destroyed) by the Soviets in 1920. So yes, it was originally removed as an imperialist relic, by powers that the Ukrainian authorities claim later perpetrated genocide specifically against Ukrainians because they were Ukrainians i.e. it was an incident between opposing factions of Ukraine deniers. This is where we’re at, which actually doesn’t surprise me that much because I believe we’ve been in a clown world for a long time.

*https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/zyccgk/catherine_the_great_statue_taken_down_in_odesa/

The monument to Catherine was demolished because Catherine the Great is associated with Russia. One should not look for some philosophical or historical meaning here. It's just a symbolic gesture against a pile of copper.

Again, she is the founder of Odessa. This is yet another farce.

What does that have to do with the people of Odessa wanting nothing to do with her today?

A lot, as otherwise they wouldn't have their city.

The people of Odessa seem to hate Russian imperialism more than they are grateful for the one time she demanded a city be built on their soil. The city of Odessa is in its inhabitants and its people, not in the empress who decreed that specific spot get a city one day.

The people of Odessa seem to hate Russian imperialism more than they are grateful for the one time she demanded a city be built on their soil.

So I reckon they'd prefer to live in village shacks as barbarians (also in the original sense of the word) - i.e. not in a city - than to suffer that statue to stand?

So I reckon they'd prefer to live in village shacks as barbarians (also in the original sense of the word) - i.e. not in a city

As they have option to keep city while not honouring Russian ruler, why this would be relevant at all?

Also, it is not like city would not be founded there or nearby sooner or later.

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