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"Lenin" (Kulikovo Pole) Square & Second-hand book bazaar
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Kulikovo
Pole Square (Куликово поле Площадь)
Formerly named October Revolution Square during
the Soviet Union.
Located
right next to the railway station, to the East,
reached from the railway station by the underground
walkway.
This
square is the biggest in the city, covering 10.5
hectares (26 acres).
Numerous
Blue Tien-Shan firs decorate this square. A lane
of trees had been planted by representatives of
Odessa's twin towns, other communist countries,
and cities throughout the former Soviet Union. It
is a pedestrian only park.
Huge
clusters of street lamps on towering poles flank
the park in a semicircle.
Monumental building constructed in 1958
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In
1958 a monumental building was built for the
communist party members of Odessa. Today it
is the:
Federation
of Trade Unions
of the Odessa Region
and the Social Security for
Temporary Inability to Work Organization.
Odessa Regional Department.
Executive Directorate.
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Second-hand
book bazaar in Kulikovo Pole Square, "Lenin
Park"
On the north side of the park, near the train
station McDonalds
Running
along the sidewalk a couple of dozen entrepreneurs
have created a second-hand
book bazaar. Occasionally good picture books
and more seldom, English books can be found
here.
Lenin
Statue on Kulikovo Pole Square (Куликово поле
Площадь)
To match the imposing building on the square,
On October 30, 1967, the eve of the 50th anniversary
of the Soviet Revolution, a mammoth statue of
Lenin was unveiled. It is made of granite and
stands 10 meters (32.8 feet) tall, with the
figure of Lenin being 6 meters (19.6 feet).
It was sculpted by Malvey and Otto Manizer.
Replicas of this statue can be found throughout
the Soviet Union.
It
is the site of the occasional communist demonstrations,
groups of pensioners who are nostalgic for the
security and stability of the past.
The
site was once called Kulikov field, a wasteland
used by the army for soldiers' training. In
the early 19th century Odessa's first prison
was built here, and the square began to be named
"prison square". Many revolutionaries
before the Soviet Revolution were held in the
prison. Two revolutionaries, S. Khalturin and
N. Jelvakov were hanged in the prison on March
22, 1882, and then were secretly buried on prison
square.
Revolutionary
Memorial on Kulikovo Pole Square
In January 1918, Prison square was the site
of strong fighting during the Soviet revolution.
On January 30th the Soviets (reds) captured
the railway station and severed the retreat
of the nationalist from the city, forcing them
to surrendered. On February 4th, 1918 a funeral
was given for the 117 revolutionaries who were
killed in the fighting on the square.
A
memorial for these 117 revolutionaries is located
on the east side of Kulikovo Pole Square. It
is a large cube of black labradorite (feldspar)
on a marble pedestal with a wreath of oak leaves
cast in bronze on the top.
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The
inscription reads:
To
the fighters who have perished in the
battle for power of the Soviets in Odessa
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On
the north side the inscription reads:
From
Odessa's working people, 1960
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Fantasies
of an Insane Confectioner
Looking at the bizarre architectural creations
of the Stalin Era, their mammoth size, overabundance
of decorative elements, you get a feeling you
are looking at a cross between a Babylonian ziggurat
and an enormously huge cake.
These
edifices reflected the very spirit of the totalitarian
regimes. Standing close to these monstrous architectural
creation, you feel dwarfed by gigantic columns,
huge statues of the heroes of the totalitarian
myths, flamboyant moldings, you feel your insignificance,
you feel oppressed and belittled by the might
and power that created these edifices. The idea
was to dwarf and belittle, the individual meant
little, and the state was all-important.
In
the late thirties, Stalin's court architects
worked out plans of "total reconstruction
of Soviet cities", with Moscow "to
be completely renovated" first. In Odessa,
this involved the destruction
of the cathedral on Cathedral Square.
Totalitarian
art was marked by some features which make it
a fascinating study: there were rules which
prescribed what size the monument of Lenin should
be depending on the importance of the place
the monument was to be erected at, and varied
from stupendous giants in big cities to small,
mass produced clones in villages.
A
great number of artists specialized in producing
official art which included not only the portrayal
of the leaders but also mythological monuments:
muscled workers in overalls; happy, ruddy and
smiling farmers, valiant soldiers, well-fed
children with idiotic smiles on their thoughtless
faces. The yard of practically every school
was decorated with a statue of a young Leninist
pioneer blowing a horn, or reading a book.
Almost
every park in the Soviet Union, whose territory
extended over one sixth of the globes land,
had a sculpture of an athlete with an oar--usually
a robust woman made of white plaster which,
probably, was meant to symbolize the excellent
health and athletic aspirations of the Soviet
people.
In
a wave of democratic exuberance and excess,
the Eastern European people pulled down thousands
of monuments of the leaders and other symbols
of totalitarianism. Some of them should have
been left. They are part of Ukraine's history,
no matter what kind of history it was. Looking
back in reflection, the Soviets destroyed such
priceless monuments of Odessa as the Katherine
the Great (which now stands the Potemkin
sailor monument) and blew up the Cathedral
on Cathedral Square. If Ukrainians today destroy
such monuments as the
Lenin statue in Kulikovo Pole Square, won't
history judge those who destroy monuments today
just as harshly as those who destroyed monuments
70 years ago? Would Ukrainians have learned
anything from their country's dark history?
--
developed from " Fantasies of an Insane
Confectioner", Andry Hlazovy, Welcome to
Ukraine Magazine
Excellent
examples of Soviet era statues in Odessa can
be found at:
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Monument
in Tomas park
Small park north of Kulikovo Pole Square
The inscription on this plaque reads:
Mihaly
Dmitrievich Tomas 1833-1929
Member
of the Communist Party from 1905
Participant in three Russian Revolutions
Organizer and the leader of the regiments
of Workers' Red Guards
On
the side of the monument are the two dates of
the revolution, 1905 and 1917.
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Golden
Calf (золотой теленок)
Italyansky Blvd. 11 (Итальянский Бульвар)
This defunct restaurant has a symbol from the
Ilya
I'lf and Yevgeny Petrov's book and film
"The Little Golden Calf ", written
in 1930 and translated in 1931.
The
Little Golden Calf (1931), is a sequel to The
Twelve Chairs. It resurrects Ostap Bender with
a tell-tale scar across his throat. Bender chases
after a Soviet multi-millionaire, hoping to
relieve him of at least one of his millions.
Bender gets his money, but the only thing he
manages to keep after a customs inspection is
a medal, the Order of the Golden Fleece (or
Golden Calf). Although humor in The Golden Calf
was clearly propagandistic in tone, and its
worldview was not so bleak, the Soviet officials
viewed the story with suspicion. It was published
after Maksim Gorky's personal intervention.
(Click
here for more on authors I'lf and Petrov's see
"The Soviet famous "12 chairs"
novel and movie" box)
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Memorial
plaque on government building (plaque
on building below)
Kanatnaya 87 (Канатная)
Across the street from Kulikovo Pole Square
(Куликово поле Площадь)
On
Pirogovskaya (Пироговская) the roof of this
colossus structure is decorated with Soviet
emblems.
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There
is a memorial plaque with a distinguished looking
man who has dozens of metals of his shirt. The
memorial below states:
Marshal
of the Soviet Union, four
times Hero of the Soviet Union
G. K. Zjukov from 3rd June 1946 to 4th February
1948
was in command of the troops of Odessa Military
Region.
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