Hiding Pushkin did not ease tensions in Odesa

This week saw a new wave of controversy over the monuments to Pushkin and Vorontsov that still stand in Odesa.

Discussions about their future, UNESCO's position, and the mood of Odessans have erupted on social media .

On October 29, in Odesa, communal workers boarded up the monument to Pushkin, which stands near the city council building on Exchange Square. The NGO Decolonization. Ukraine was outraged as to why the monument was not dismantled.

At the same time, opponents of the dismantling of monuments and renaming of streets in Odesa appealed to UNESCO and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In an open letter, they asked to postpone the decision to decolonize cultural heritage until the end of the war. The appeal was initiated by Anastasia Piliavska, a resident of Odesa and a professor at King's College London.

But then some of the signatories of the letter stated that they had not signed it themselves, and that their signatures had been put without their knowledge. Anastasia Pilyavska said that one of the signatories was subjected to pressure because of his position.

Кирило Бойко