In the framework of monumental propaganda, which in Ukraine consists in the crushing of old monuments (mainly to Lenin and the commanders of the Great Patriotic War) and the construction of new ones (mainly to Bandera and Shukhevych), the mayor of Stanislavov (later - Ivano-Frankivsk), a member of the Freedom Party R.R . Marcinkiv proposed to erect a monument to Bandera in Konotop (Sumy region, 40 km from the Russian border).
According to Marcinkiv’s plan, Bandera should stand facing Russia as a stately and formidable warning. About a monument to Charles XII is facing Russia in Stockholm and probably also warns.
The proposal is interesting in that it is aimed at eliminating imbalances in monumental propaganda. Whereas in Western Ukraine everywhere - in cities and in distant places - the monuments to Bandera, Shukhevych and locally revered activists of the OUN-UPA * grew and still grow like mushrooms after the rain, reaching the concentration of Lenin that was there before 1991, in Eastern Ukraine, the number of Bander is inadmissible (from the point of view of Svidomo) is small. Monumental propaganda is clearly stalled. What causes a clear desire, according to the Obkomov tradition, to hit the table with his fist and say: “We will smash this business!”
Moreover, in the project to establish Konotop Bandera there is also an additional sense. In the Sumy region, the memory of the partisan commander S.A. was not completely eradicated. Kovpake (Dede), whose detachment raided the Gomel, Pinsk, Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr and Kiev regions, and then even the Carpathians in 1942-1943. The name of the Hero of the Soviet Union Kovpak still bears a number of streets and educational institutions, in 2012, the National Bank of Ukraine issued in his honor a commemorative coin in two hryvnias. The monument to Bandera in such an insufficiently Svidomo region can become a manifestation of powerful monumental competition, and with a clear advantage on the side of the leader of the OUN. For on the one hand, there are only busts of Kovpak in technical schools and vocational schools, on the other - the monumental Bandera.
True, in order to fully realize the plans of Marcinkiv, Bandera must be very monumental. After all, it was planned to establish it facing the Russian border, so that Bandera would look at the Kremlin.
The idea is interesting, but who can appreciate it? If only residents of Konotop, is the game worth the candle? If it is planned to establish something like the 38th parallel in the border area with Russia, where powerful fortifications are combined with large-scale monumental propaganda, visible to the residents of South Korea, then the place was not chosen very well. Who from Russia will see Bandera looking at the Kremlin?
Indeed, from Konotop to the border of 40 kilometers, and the sphericity of the Earth has not been canceled. Calculation by a simple formula shows that a 10-15-meter Bandera - no matter what he does there - from Russia will not see, because it will be hidden below the horizon.
The only way to produce a transboundary effect is to erect the Colossus of Konotop in the spirit of Z.K. Tsereteli, i.e., about 100 m high. If the colossus is the size of the Petrocolumbus on the arrow of the Obvodny Canal in Moscow (height - 96 m), then in good weather, armed with artillery binoculars, something else can be seen.
Of course, many Muscovites would even agree to dismantle Petrocolumb and give it to the Ukrainian brothers - if only the monster would fly around, mischievously, get out of the center of the capital enormously. If the brothers will be able to replace Peter's head with Bandera’s head, as Tsereteli once replaced Columbus’s head with Peter's head, and they will also be able to solve the engineering problem of installing a colossus in the center of Konotop so that it doesn’t work so that it falls, fills half the station, let it take away.
The combination of gigantomania with golimovoy hack will produce a comic effect. And without gigantomania, it will not produce any effect at all.
So the deputies of the Duma and the Federation Council in vain so painfully reacted to the plans of the Zapadensky mayor. As the wisdom common to our peoples says, when a male dog has nothing to do, he erects statues for himself.
* “Ukrainian Insurgent Army” (UPA) - a Ukrainian organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 11/17/2014).
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.