Bohdan Khmelnytsky Monument, Kiev

The Bohdan Khmelnytsky Monument () is a monument in Kyiv dedicated to Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the first Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host. It was built in 1888 and is one of the oldest sculptural monuments in Kyiv. It is a dominating feature of Sophia Square and one of the city's symbols.

The monument is located almost in the middle of the Sophia Square (formerly the main city's square) on the axis that unites both belltowers of the Sophia Cathedral and the St. Michael's Monastery.

Here on 23 December 1648, residents of Kyiv met Khmelnytsky leading his Cossacks' regiments entering the city through the Golden Gates soon after the victory over Polish Army at the Battle of Pyliavtsi.

History

The erection of the monument began on the initiative of Mykola Kostomarov, a historian and professor of the Saint Vladimir Imperial University of Kyiv in the 1840s. Mikhail Yuzefovich, the deputy commissioner of the Kyiv School District supported the idea and originally wanted to establish the monument for the 200th anniversary of the Council of Pereyaslav.Tsalyk, S.
The monument to Khmelnytsky should have been standing on the Bessarabian Square (Пам"ятник Хмельницькому мав стояти на Бессарабці)
'. Gazeta.ua. 19 June 2008. The monument was supposed to be installed at Bessarabian Square, for which the square carried the name of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1869–1881. However, the construction was postponed due to the Crimean War. After receiving permission from the Imperial government in 1860 for the establishment of the monument, a committee was created and headed by Mikhail Yuzefovich.

The initial draft of the monument created by Mikhail Mikeshin was outright chauvinistic – Khmelnytsky's horse was dropping a Polish szlachcic, Jewish leaseholder, and Jesuit from a cliff, in front of which a Little Russian, Red Russian, White Russian, and Great Russian listened to a song of a blind kobzar. A basrelief of the pedestal was to show images of the Siege of Zbarazh, the Council of Pereyaslav, and a scene depicting the entrance of Khmelnytsky's Cossack Host into Kyiv.

In 1863, the erection of the monument was again postponed due to the 1863 January Uprising. In 1868 Mikeshin, who was already creating another Khmelnytsky monument for the Millennium of Russia in Novgorod, was offered a chance to create a draft for the monument in Kyiv. In 1869 the draft was approved and in 1870 fundraising began on Russian subscription. However, the committee decided to cut the budget due to the fact that the collected sum was relatively small (only 37,000 rubles), in addition to the fact that the Kyiv Governor-General Prince Aleksandr Dondukov-Korsakov perceived the original design of the monument to be anti-Polish and anti-Semitic in nature. As a result, the decision was made to leave only the central figure of the Hetman in the monument.

In 1877, a gypsum model of the monument was created. In 1879, a draft of the statue was cast at the Saint Petersburg Baird Works based on Mikeshin's draft by Pius Weloński and Artemiy Ober, and for which the Russian Imperial Naval department donated 1,600 poodi (25.6 t) of scrap metal. Portrait features and details of the Khmelnytsky's clothes were recreated based on the consultations of Volodymyr Antonovych.

In 1879, the statue was brought to Kyiv; however, due to a lack of funding for the construction of the pedestal, installation work ceased until the mid-1880s and the statue remained on holdover for several years in the courtyard of the Kyiv Government Office Building (Будинок присутніх місць). The city architect designed a simpler pedestal and supervised its construction as well as the installation of the monument. The Kyiv Fortress administration donated granite blocks for the pedestal that had been left over from the construction of the Nicholas Chain Bridge over Dnieper. A grand opening and consecration of the monument took place on 23 June 1888.''Памятник Богдану Хмельницкому (Исторический очерк его сооружения) // Киевская старина. -1888. - №7.'' (''Monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsiy (Historical outline of its construction)//Kievskaya starina magazine. 1888. N 7.'')

Since 2001, the object has been included in the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine as a monument of national importance.

Gallery

File:Mikeshin Khmelnitsky.jpg, Initial draft, 1869
File:Памятник Богдану Хмельницкому Киев.jpg, Installation of the monument in 1888
File:Памятник Богдану Хмельницкому XIX век.jpg, The monument at the turn of the 19th century
File:Bohdan Khmelnytsky Kiev 2017 G1.jpg, Up close, 2017
File:Пам'ятник Богданові Хмельницькому Monumento a Bogdan Khmelnitsky.jpg, View of the monument in front of the Hyatt hotel
File:Пам'ятник Богдану Хмельницькому у Києві.jpg, The monument at the beginning of the 20th century, with the original inscription, "Bohdan Khmelnitsky, a Single Undivided Russia" visible
File:Stamp of USSR 1760.jpg, Depicted on a 1954 USSR stamp marking 300 years of Russian–Ukrainian union
File:Ukraine Kyiv Square of hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky.jpeg, View of the monument on Sophia Square (Sofiiska Ploshcha), behind it stands the "Prisutstvinyie mesta" building
File:PaKyiv1(Panorama).jpg, View of the monument amid Sophia Square
File:Bohdan Khmelnytsky Monument, sheltered from Russian shelling. Kyiv, July 2022.jpg, View of the monument during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv, July 2022

See also

* Cossack Hetmanate
* Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian people

References

External links

Bohdan Khmelnytsky Monument
at the Kyiv e-Encyclopedia

Bohdan Khmelnytsky Monument
at the World Digital Library.

{{National landmarks of cultural heritage in Kyiv

Monuments and memorials in Kyiv
Shevchenkivskyi District, Kyiv
Sophia Square
Landmarks in Kyiv
1888 sculptures
Bronze sculptures
Equestrian statues in Ukraine
Outdoor sculptures in Kyiv
Historic sites in Ukraine
Tourist attractions in Kyiv
Volodymyrska Street
Symbols of Kyiv
Statues of monarchs
Statues of military officers