In Ukraine’s Odessa, locals fight orders to erase Russia
A culture war raging within the Black Sea port over statues of hometown heroes Alexander Pushkin and Isaac Babel will shape what kind of country Ukraine becomes.
This statue of Alexander Pushkin was removed from the Ukrainian city of Dnipro without pushback in 2022. But a similar statue in Odessa has passionate locals opposed to its removal. AP
At the top of the Potemkin Steps in Odessa, the most famous staircase in cinema history, a statue of the Duc de Richelieu stands on the corniche of Primorsky Boulevard. Richelieu, a French nobleman who became a Russian army officer, was, in 1803, appointed governor of the region and mayor of the young and then underwhelming city.
His reformist zeal, introduction of duty-free trading and religious tolerance helped the small town transform itself into an Enlightenment metropolis. Two centuries later his toga-clad bronze form looks out sternly at the Black Sea.
