The Russians must fall! Ukrainians are toppling the statue of Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, having torn down Catherine the Great, Alexander Pushkin and Maxim Gorky
- A statue of Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov was torn down in Dnipro
- City workers removed the statue from its pedestal in the center of town
- Ukraine continued its mission to eliminate remnants of Russian and Soviet culture
Ukrainians have torn down a statue of Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, the last monument in Dnipro associated with the Soviet era.
Public utility workers in the city of Dnipro were seen dismantling the huge statue previously erected in the 1970s as a memorial to the Russian scientist in the center of the city.
As the war rages on, the country has continued its mission to eradicate all remnants of Russian and Soviet culture throughout modern-day Ukraine.
Local Ukrainian news agencies reported that this was the last monument in the city that had any connection to the Soviet era.
Utility workers dismantle the monument to Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov using special equipment, Dnipro, Ukraine, January 6, 2022
On January 6, 2022, workers at the municipal utility in the city of Dnipro were seen dismantling the giant statue of Mikhail Lomonosov
Who was Mikhail Lomonosov?
Mikhail Lomonosov was a Russian scientist and writer. He was known as a polymath and made significant contributions to science, literature, education and language.
He was born in 1711 when Tsar Peter the Great ruled Russia and died in 1765.
One of Lomonosov’s most famous discoveries was that Venus had an atmosphere. In a small observatory near his home in St. Petersburg, he observed an arc of light encircling the planet.
Lomonosov also made discoveries in chemical reactions and the transformation of mass.
In addition to his contributions to science, Lomonosov was also a poet and writer, and he is credited with his contributions to the modern Russian language.
Workers in Dnipro have previously demolished eight other monuments, following online votes and decisions by the city’s Executive Committee.
Other dismantled statues include Alexander Pushkin, a 19th-century playwright and poet, and Maxim Gorky, a writer, socialist academic, and five-time Nobel Prize winner.
Statues of Andrei Bulygin, Valery Chkalov, Alexander Matrosov, Yefim Pushkin and Volodia Dubinin were also demolished.
Public utility workers in orange high-vis jackets and hard hats were seen tearing down the statue from its pedestal in front of a university building in Ukraine’s fourth-largest city.
The statue was unveiled in June 1971, some twenty years before the Soviet Union officially collapsed in 1991. It is made of bronze and appears to be about 12 feet tall.
Some of the workers stood on a cherry picker as a crane lowered a large line to wrap around the memorial to the scientist. Others cordoned off the area to gather locals.
With the tether in place, the crane operator expertly detached the statue from the pedestal before slowly lowering it to the ground, laying it face down.
Many watched as the city’s last surviving Soviet-era statue was dismantled, while the country’s blue and yellow flag fluttered in the wind in the background.
Some of the workers stood on a cherry picker as a crane lowered a large line to wrap around the memorial to the scientist. Others cordoned off the area from other locals
Many watched as the city’s last surviving Soviet-era statue was dismantled, while the country’s blue and yellow flag fluttered in the wind in the background
As the war rages on, the country has continued its mission to eradicate all remnants of Russian and Soviet culture throughout modern-day Ukraine
The fallen statue is now being put into temporary storage by local officials, Dnipro, Ukraine, January 6, 2020
The toppled statue is now being temporarily stored by local officials
This follows other Soviet-era statues torn down across Ukraine.
Just a few weeks ago, community workers tore down a monument to the Russian Empress Catherine the Great in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa.
After an online public vote to remove the monument to Catherine II upheld the decision, workers removed it from the city.
The statue of Catherine the Great was erected in Odessa in 1900 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the city.
Council officials in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa tore down a monument to Catherine the Great after a public vote on December 28, 2022
Workers remove the monument to Catherine II, also known as the “Monument to the Founders of Odessa,” Ukraine, in the early hours of December 29, 2022