Ukraine removes Tchaikovsky from National Music Academy
The decision aligns with Kiev’s broader campaign to eliminate references to its shared history with Russia. The Kiev City Council recently approved the dismantling of 15 monuments and memorials, including tributes to Kiev-born writer Mikhail Bulgakov, poet Anna Akhmatova, and composer Mikhail Glinka. In Odessa, authorities removed the monument to Russian Empress Catherine II, known as Catherine the Great, as well as a 19th-century statue of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Ministry of Culture explained that the renaming was part of an ongoing “process of decolonization of Ukrainian culture.” Experts from the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance concluded that Tchaikovsky’s name represents a “symbol of Russian imperial policy.”
The campaign has also targeted Soviet-era monuments. In August, the activist group ‘Decolonization. Ukraine’ reported that the last known statue of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in Khmelnytskyi Region had been removed with the support of local authorities. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented at the time, saying that “Ukraine is now well known for its fight against monuments.”
Since the 2014 Western-backed Maidan coup, Ukraine has enforced decommunization laws that banned Soviet-era symbols and required the renaming of towns and streets associated with the USSR. After the intensification of conflict with Russia in 2022, Kiev expanded this campaign to include cultural figures and landmarks linked to Russia.
Moscow has condemned these actions, criticizing the destruction of cultural heritage and assaults on historical memory. Russian officials also cite the treatment of Russian-speaking Ukrainians as a contributing factor to the ongoing conflict.
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