““Along with the renovation of the museum space, there was also a rethinking of one of the fundamental propaganda myths of the Soviet totalitarian regime””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“The museum initiated an examination of the bronze reliefs. Specialists of the National Research Restoration Center of Ukraine conducted a study, based on which they created a “Passport for the inspection of the state of preservation of the bronze overlay elements of the “Gold Star” medals and text inscriptions,” the message says.
The museum also substantiated “the necessity of their dismantling and carrying out restoration”.
“Along with the renovation of the museum space, there was also a rethinking of one of the fundamental propaganda myths of the Soviet totalitarian regime,” the museum noted.
The term “Hero City” in the Soviet Union was approved after the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 8, 1965 “On the approval of the regulation on the highest degree of recognition – the title of “Hero City”.
The first cities to receive this title in 1965 were Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Odesa, Sevastopol, Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), Kyiv, Moscow, and the Brest Fortress was also honored.
In 1973, the title of “Hero City” was awarded to Kerch and Novorossiysk, in 1974 to Minsk, in 1976 to Tula, in 1985 to Murmansk and Smolensk.
The experts noted that “no criteria were defined regarding the work of the commissions that made the decision to award the title of Hero City.” The marking of the cities had a “chaotic character” and was used purely for ideological purposes – the implementation of the myth of the “Great Patriotic War”.
On April 26, 2022, a Soviet sculpture symbolizing the “reunification of Ukraine and Russia” was dismantled in Kyiv, and the Arch of Friendship of Peoples itself was renamed the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People.
The sculptural composition of the Arch of Friendship of Peoples appeared in Kyiv in 1982. They wanted to time its opening to the 60th anniversary of the formation of the USSR, which was supposed to be celebrated in December, but they did it earlier – in October, on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917.