KCSA: Demolition of the former Peoplesʼ Friendship Arch can be dangerous

The Department of Cultural Heritage Protection of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) stated that the demolition of the former Peoplesʼ Friendship Arch could be dangerous for the city.

The director of the department Maryna Solovyova told Suspilne about this.

In 2022, KCSA renamed the Peoplesʼ Friendship Arch to the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People. The department prepared accounting documentation and handed it over to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy.

However, last week the Ministry unilaterally stripped the arch of its status as a historical monument. Now the department wants KCSA to dismantle it.

However, according to Solovyova, KCSA and its department do not agree with such a decision.

"You know, the arch symbolizes the tolerance of the Ukrainian people. In general, the Ukrainian people were very tolerant of all nations, all religions, and all communities. Today, society has exactly such a vision. People came to my department who said that the arch is located next to the European Square, so there should be European values, namely tolerance," she said.

In addition, according to her, the demolition of the arch can be dangerous, because parts of this monument form a retaining wall that prevents the landslide. Therefore, the dismantling of the object will be difficult, expensive and, moreover, dangerous.

She noted that despite the renaming, the arch continues to be called the "Peoplesʼ Friendship Arch" only out of habit.

"At first, Artem Street was Artem Street, then it was renamed to Sichovykh Striltsiv Street. And today everyone has already forgotten what the name was, and everyone calls it Sichovykh Striltsiv Street," says Solovyova.

The Peoplesʼ Friendship Arch in Kyiv was created for the 60th anniversary of the formation of the USSR and was solemnly opened on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917.

The arch connected two sculptural compositions: workers — a Russian and a Ukrainian, holding a ribbon with the Order of Friendship of Peoples, and a stele with a multi-figure group symbolizing the Pereyaslav Council of 1654.

Figures of a Russian and a Ukrainian with the Order of "Peoplesʼ Friendship Arch" were dismantled in April 2022.

The expert commission of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance believes that the Arch is a symbol of Russian imperial policy and should be completely dismantled. Despite being renamed the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People, the monument represents exclusively Soviet connotations.