In Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh Region, a monument dedicated to the meeting of Peter the Great and Ivan Mazepa in Ostrogozhsk was demolished following a public denunciation by the Bloknot editors. This was reported by the publication itself.
In April of this year, a publication was published on the Notepad website with the heading “The Voronezh region gives a reason to declare Kyiv’s claims to an ancient Russian city.” It said that “some kind of monument to Russian-Ukrainian relations” had been erected in Ostrogozhesk, while reading an inscription on which “one gets the impression that the tsar expressed his gratitude to Mazepa for the impeccable service of his Cossacks.”
Employees of the publication reported that their attention was drawn to the monument by the “historian and writer” Nikolai Sapelkin, who stopped by Ostrogozhsk on his way to the self-proclaimed LPR. “Instilling Mazepinism in Ostrogozhsk is dangerous. After all, by doing so, we give our opponents in the West and in Kyiv a reason to declare Ukraine's claims to an ancient city in the Voronezh region, ”he said. Sapelkin called Mazepa “a Judas and a traitor” and added that “now we have to restore historical justice and remove his name from the monument.”
Photo: Vadim Tsukanov
“A positive assessment of Mazepa is comparable to a public demonstration of the symbols of Ukrainian nationalism in Russia. If the authorities do not meet the demands of the public and do not correct the text of the board on the monument, then the next appeal will be to the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General’s Office,” Sapelkin concluded.
As a result, the Voronezh activist Vadim Tsukanov became interested in the monument, who wrote inquiries about the legality of its installation. He received a response from the administration of Ostrogozhsk that the monument was erected in 1997 on the occasion of the 345th anniversary of the city at the initiative of the Ostrogozhsk Museum of Art and History with budget money, while the Department of Culture said that the monument was not on the balance sheet of the municipality and there was no documentation on it.
On the eve of Tsukanov in his group “Protection of the cultural heritage of Voronezh” showed photographs of the dismantled monument. Notebook specifies that the monument was demolished at the end of August.
A resident of Ostrogozhsk told Tsukanov that they were going to erect a sign “in the form of a ship in honor of Peter the Great’s visit to the city of Ostrogozhsk” at this place. Notepad stressed that over time, a “majestic monument” to the participants in the invasion of Ukraine could appear there.
Photo: Vadim Tsukanov
