Since 2013, the base of Taras Shevchenko Boulevard in Kyiv has stood strangely empty. The worn-down monument is covered in white paint and graffiti. Someone has stuck a Ukrainian trident where Lenin once stood, looking down during the years of Soviet communism. A crowd pulled down the statue during Ukraine’s Maidan revolution, which pushed out the pro-Russian government, and smashed it with sledgehammers.
In June, Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested putting a new figure on the base: Ivan Mazepa, a Cossack military and political leader who broke away from Moscow and fought for Ukraine’s independence. “I am sure that where Lenin fell, Mazepa will stand strong,” Zelenskyy said. He spoke next to a bust of Mazepa in the Pechersk Lavra, an ancient Kyiv monastery that was hit by Russian missiles.
The proposed swap of Lenin for Mazepa has sparked a lively debate about monuments and what they reveal about changing national identity. After gaining independence in 1991, Ukraine removed many Soviet-era statues and renamed streets as part of “decommunisation.” This process sped up in 2014 when Russia took Crimea and fighting started in the Donbas, and moved even faster after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in 2022, which aimed to erase Ukraine from Europe’s map.
Nataliia Kryvda, a professor of cultural history at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, said Ukraine is going through an unfinished period of decolonisation. “The USSR absorbed national cultures. It tried to create a single nation of Soviet citizens. Today, Russia looks at Ukraine and says we are one people. That’s not true. We have our own mindset, historical destiny, beliefs, and dreams. Our identity is a dynamic process,” she said.
Standing next to the former Lenin base, Kryvda said she supports a Mazepa monument. “Why not? He’s our leader. Every culture needs to mark its space with memorials. They make memory tangible,” she said. She described Mazepa as a “contradictory figure” and not an “ideal hero.”
“He really was a friend and political partner of Russia, right up until the moment he dramatically changed his life and history,” she added.
As hetman, or leader, of Cossack Ukraine, Mazepa tried to balance the demands of neighbouring Moscow and Warsaw. In 1708, Russian Emperor Peter the Great refused to protect Ukrainian territory from invading Swedes. Mazepa left the tsar and formed an alliance with Swedish King Charles XII. This move ended in defeat and led the Bolsheviks to call modern Ukrainian patriots “Mazepists.”
“Mazepa was the architect of a European Ukraine,” Kryvda said.
In his speech at the Pechersk Lavra, Zelenskyy said Russia had slandered Mazepa for centuries, portraying him as a traitor. Their goal, he said, was to make Ukrainians “see their own history through the eyes of others.”
Alim Aliev, a writer and Crimean Tatar activist, said Ukraine is finally reclaiming its identity. “We are taking back our own voices and names,” he said. He pointed to the example of 20th-century Ukrainian poet and dissident Vasyl Stus, whose image will appear in September on a new 2,000 Hryvnia note. Stus studied in Donetsk, the eastern Donbas city now occupied by Russia, and led Ukraine’s national revival. He died in 1985 in a Soviet prison camp.
In Aliev’s view, Ukraine is now talking about its past “without intermediaries,” and he said it’s fitting that statues of 19th-century Russian poet Pushkin have been taken down across the country. “He had a completely imperial view of Crimea,” Aliev said, citing Pushkin’s narrative poem The Fountain of Bakhchisarai. “He exoticises Crimean Tatars and describes us from a colonial perspective.” About the Mazepa statue, he added: “I don’t tI think it’s a controversial idea.
Last month, workers removed a monument to another famous Russian writer, Mikhail Bulgakov. It had stood since 2007 outside the house where he lived, on one of Kyiv’s most beautiful streets, St Andrew’s Descent. The Kyiv city council voted to take it down. Other plaques dedicated to Bulgakov—who was born in Kyiv to a Russian family when the city was part of the Russian Empire—have already been removed, including one outside the university where he studied medicine. Bulgakov’s museum, located in his former home, is still open.
The museum’s director, Liudmyla Habianuri, said she didn’t oppose removing the statue and dismissed a petition to keep it as “bland.” She acknowledged that Bulgakov wrote negatively about Ukrainian nationalist forces in his Kyiv novel The White Guard, which is set in the winter of 1918–19 during revolution and war. But she stressed, “Bulgakov was a witness to his times. And a satirist. He didn’t like anybody. That included communists and priests.”
Habianuri said Russia’s war has made Ukrainians ask, “‘Who am I?’ It’s a very painful question,” she said. “If I speak Russian and watch Russian films, and the Russians are killing me, then I have to give all that up. Then I’m Ukrainian. And if I’m Ukrainian, I must become Ukrainian as quickly as possible.”
This has led people to join the struggle for identity, she said, either through social media or by attacking monuments.
Bulgakov, she added, is often caught up in these struggles. “Right now there is a table with only two columns: plus or minus. As a Russian who didn’t write from the perspective of Ukraine’s defenders, Bulgakov can’t get a plus sign.”
Habianuri said a process of “simplification” is happening, but she was thrilled when protesters pulled down the Lenin statue, saying, “The man was an enemy of humanity itself.” Mazepa, she said, was a “unique person” who inspired a famous poem by Lord Byron. But she questioned whether the plinth was the right place for a memorial.
“I understand it’s a quick jab at Russia. But it’s not the right place for a hero,” she said. “The Germans hanged people there during the Second World War.”
Unlike Lenin’s statue, the Bulgakov statue was carefully packed up and returned to the family of its late sculptor, Mykola Rapay. His daughter, Kateryna, declined a request from the Guardian to photograph the work at its new location. She said she had given official guarantees that the monument would stay “out of public space.”
“These are not my whims,” she said. “The sculpture is not my property. I am the guarantor of its preservation.”
Over at the Pechersk Lavra, tourists walked past the new bust of Mazepa, which has been placed in front of a fountain and a pleasant shady garden. It sits next to the complex’s 11th-century Dormition Cathedral, which was used in medieval times for…For the burial of important figures. Last week, a boy took a photo of his father standing next to the new monument.
Mazepa, a supporter of the arts, donated money for the cathedral’s baroque renovation. In June, a Russian drone crashed into its roof, starting a fire and blackening the outdoor images of saints. Other icons and religious items were saved.
One Ukrainian visitor, Olena Polishchuk, said she had come to the Lavra from the UK, where she has lived since Putin’s full-scale invasion. What did she think of Mazepa? “He’s a famous man. I’m glad he’s being remembered. He’s an important part of our history,” she said.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs based on the topic ranging from basic to more advanced questions
BeginnerLevel Questions
Q Why does Kyiv want to remove a statue of Lenin
A Many Ukrainians see Lenin and the Soviet Union as a force that oppressed Ukraine caused famines and suppressed Ukrainian culture Removing the statue is a way to reject that legacy
Q Who is the Cossack chief they want to replace it with
A The statue would likely be of a famous Cossack leader Cossacks are seen as symbols of Ukrainian independence military strength and national identity
Q Is this just about one statue
A No This is part of a much larger movement called decommunization or decolonization in Ukraine where thousands of Sovietera monuments and street names are being removed or replaced
Q What is the Holodomor that people mention with this topic
A The Holodomor was a manmade famine in Soviet Ukraine in 193233 that killed millions of Ukrainians Many hold Lenin and Stalin responsible for this genocide
IntermediateLevel Questions
Q What does the quote Lenin was an enemy of humanity mean in this context
A Its a strong statement used by Ukrainian activists and historians to argue that Lenins policies caused immense suffering and death not just in Ukraine but globally
Q Why a Cossack chief instead of a modern Ukrainian hero
A Cossack leaders represent a preSoviet independent Ukraine They symbolize a long history of fighting for freedom against foreign empires Its a powerful way to connect modern Ukraine to its precolonial roots
Q Is this decision supported by all Ukrainians
A No While many support it some older Ukrainians who grew up in the USSR still respect Soviet symbols Others argue that removing statues is a waste of money or that history should be preserved in museums not destroyed
Q Has this caused any conflict or legal battles
