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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   103 thread views

Transnational Thursday for June 11, 2026

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A Kyiv Statue No More: Ukrainians Debate Role Of Russian Author Mikhail Bulgakov

Residents of the Ukrainian capital have mixed reactions over the removal of a statue of Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, author of The Master And Margarita. Born in Kyiv when it was part of the Russian Empire, the novelist and playwright penned sharp satire and criticized Soviet society. But the statue has now been taken down after Ukraine's Institute of National Remembrance determined that Bulgakov also symbolized Russian imperial thinking -- under which Ukraine was seen as a Russian province.

Kyiv removes Bulgakov statue

A statue of Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov that stood on Andriivskyi Descent in Kyiv was removed and handed over to the sculptor’s heir for private storage, Kyiv’s Department of Cultural Heritage Protection said on June 4.

The transfer was carried out at the family’s request. The sculptor Mykhailo Rapai’s heir petitioned an interagency working group charged with removing objects tied to Russian and Soviet history and culture to release the work for personal safekeeping, the department said.

Kyiv’s City Council voted Dec. 18, 2025, to permanently remove the monument. The decision followed an expert opinion by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, prepared under a Ukrainian law that condemns and bans propaganda of Russian imperial policy and requires the decolonization of place names. According to the institute’s finding, Bulgakov is among figures that contemporary Russian propaganda uses to glorify the Kremlin’s imperial policy, and monuments to such figures should be removed from Ukrainian streets. The institute earlier, in April 2024, officially designated Bulgakov as a symbol of Russian imperial policy subject to mandatory decolonization.

‘Propaganda literature’: calls to close Mikhail Bulgakov museum in Kyiv

According to the union, Bulgakov “hated” the idea of Ukrainian statehood and “glorified” the Russian tsar and monarchy. He also “smeared” Ukrainian nationalists including Symon Petliura, whose troops entered Kyiv in 1918, it says.

The museum’s director, Lyudmila Gubianuri, has also hit back against criticism, calling Bulgakov “a man of his time”. “He was born and lived in the Russian empire. Bulgakov had an inherent imperial mindset, but neither he nor his family were ever Ukrainophobes,” she stressed. “Bulgakov did not believe in the reality of an independent Ukraine, like quite a lot of people at that time.”

She continued: “That’s why we can’t consider him a Ukrainian writer, although he was born in Kyiv and lived here for most of his life. But Bulgakov’s work is definitely part of Ukrainian cultural space.” His sympathies – in The White Guard and in his novel The Master and Margarita – were “metaphysical” rather than “political”, she said.

According to one Redditor:

Mikhail Bulgakov was born in Kіev (now Kyiv). His parents were both Russians, born in Russia. Bulgakov has never learned Ukrainian, and not a single his work includes a positive Ukrainian character unless that character never speaks Ukrainian, but sometimes his characters ridicule Ukrainian language and Ukrainians. He died in Russia, and I clearly don't understand why would anyone call him "a Ukrainian writer".

The only surprising thing about this is that it took them until the middle of 2026.

Judging by his past in general, the portrayal of the Bolsheviks and their mentality in his works, and the censorship of said works in Soviet times, Bulgakov was at least as likely to be disowned by Putin’s regime as well. I find this at least as surprising.

That's not how Putin's regime really works. As long as the author was not against the idea of Russia entirely, they can get integrated into the syncretic religion of Glorious Grandfathers. That's how you get people who venerate both the tsars and the guys who killed the tsar.

In fact, I'm not even sure they bother to ban past authors (aside from Mein Kampf), the current dissidents are what's getting censored most of the time.

As long as the author was not against the idea of Russia entirely, they can get integrated into the syncretic religion of Glorious Grandfathers.

Not to go off on a tangent, but isn't that just how cultural policy usually works anywhere?

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