28 June 2025

Historians debunk the Soviet myth of Eisenstein's film about the battleship Potemkin in Odesa

(A monument to the Potemkinites in Odesa. Photo: Dumskaya)

The team of the History Without Myths YouTube channel explored the history of the battleship Potemkin, which Soviet mythmakers made one of the symbols of the revolution, and in Odesa, after Sergei Eisenstein's film, the Giant Staircase was unofficially called the Potemkin Stairs.

In June 1905, the first armed uprising broke out in the Russian Navy, the authors of the video reminded.

In Odesa, by the way, there is still a monument dedicated to this uprising created in Soviet times. It used to stand on European Square (formerly Ekaterininskaya), and after a monument to the founders of Odesa was erected there, the "Potemkinites" were moved to Mytna Square.

The sailors of the Black Sea Fleet squadron battleship Prince Potemkin killed several officers and seized the ship. For 11 days they sailed the Black Sea along the route Tendra Bay - Odesa - Constanta - Feodosia - Constanta. On June 29, they even shelled Odesa from the ship's cannon without causing any casualties. Eventually, the battleship's crew requested political asylum in Romania.

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VIDEO: A story without myths

"This uprising was extremely mythologized in the Soviet Union - Lenin wrote about the battleship as "the unconquered territory of the revolution". And in 1925, Sergei Eisenstein made a cult propaganda film about Potemkin. After the collapse of the USSR, old myths are being refuted, but at the same time new ones are emerging," the authors of the video noted.

"History Without Myths" is a channel about the past of Ukraine and the world, which positions itself as telling the story without embellishment and falsification. The experts of the programs are professional historians: doctors and candidates of historical sciences, professors, associate professors, employees of research institutes and historical museums, each of whom is a specialist in a particular field.

The aim of the project is to refute anti-scientific myths, fakes, and stereotypes about Ukraine and Ukrainians, to promote public interest in history, pride in the glorious past, victories, and achievements of the Ukrainian people, to help consolidate Ukrainian society, and to create a positive image of Ukraine and Ukrainians.

Кирило Бойко

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