The Hero City monument (officially, the Obelisk in honor of the hero city of Kyiv, ) is a World War II memorial in
Halytska Square in
Kyiv, Ukraine
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
. It is a
obelisk
An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...
that was erected in 1982, during the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...
. In its original form it was marked with the dates "1941" and "1945", the starting and ending dates of World War II according to the Soviet Union, and featured a "hero star" reflecting Kyiv's status as a Soviet
Hero City.
Since the
Revolution of Dignity
The Revolution of Dignity (), also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution, took place in Ukraine in February 2014 at the end of the Euromaidan protests, when deadly clashes between protesters and state forces in the capit ...
in 2014 the Ukrainian authorities have been
decommunizing Ukraine's Soviet-era monuments, in a process which has been accelerated following the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
.
On 9 February 2023,
Kyiv city council
Kyiv City Council (, ), also known as Kyivrada (), is the city council of Kyiv municipality, the highest representative body of the city community. The members of city council are directly elected by Kyivans and the council is chaired by the M ...
renamed the square back from its Soviet-era name of Victory Square to its original name Halytska Square.
On 15 September 2023, the Soviet stars were removed from the obelisk, together with the annotation board in the
Russian language
Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...
,
and the "1941" marking was changed to "1939" to match the official Ukrainian date for the start of World War II.
On 4 November 2023 the
communist star
A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. I ...
on top of the monument was also removed.
See also
*
Mother Ukraine
''Mother Ukraine'' or ''Statue of Liberty'' ( ) is a monumental Soviet-era statue in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The sculpture is a part of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. In 2023, the Soviet heraldry wa ...
, a monumental Soviet-era statue in Kyiv
*
Alley of the Hero Cities, another Hero Cities monument in Kyiv
*
Hero City of Ukraine
Hero City of Ukraine (, ) is a Ukrainian honorary title awarded for outstanding heroism during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was awarded to ten cities in March 2022. This symbolic distinction for a city corresponds to the distinction of ...
, a post-2022 designation by the Ukrainian government
References
External links
*
Soviet military memorials and cemeteries in Ukraine
Decommunization in Ukraine
Monuments and memorials in Kyiv
Landmarks in Kyiv
Outdoor sculptures in Kyiv
{{KyivCity-geo-stub
Soviet monuments outside Russia