Russia and Ukraine

[Leonardo17]

That depends on what your enemy has to counter them. Their condition and if you have he logistics to maintain them. Otherwise all you have done is deployed target practice for the enemy or a logistical  albatross around your own neck.

The hammer and sickle of the 200 feet tall statue known as the Fatherland Mother in Kiev is being replaced by the Ukrainian Trident.
 
I am not that happy about the event.
 
   Like most Soviet monuments, this monument is incredibly ugly. Many old soviet monuments are being distorted or completely removed in many places in Eastern-Europe because all of these new democratic nations want to distance themselves from their Soviet past. I have some reserves on that attitude. I don’t see the Soviet Union as a “dark page” in history like the Third Reich etc. As see it as an ordinary page in history like monarchies, empires, colonial empires etc. Statues of colonialist / pro-slavery personalities have been desecrated in places in England and many street names bearing the names of colonialist personalities were removed and replaced by the names of African anti-colonialist resistants’ in Germany. But should we go ahead and destroy every monument / church / palace etc. that were built by ancient Kings and Emperors? I am not in favor of keeping all Soviet monuments. But for me, this statue was a symbol of resistance of a Communist / Socialist state against complete barbarians who were the Nazis. So I think it was simply better the old way. Maybe I would have built another bigger / better statue somewhere in Kyiv as soon as the war is over. This statue is simply ugly as hell

But the statue isn’t being destroyed. The hammer and sickle on the shield is being removed.

You seem upset that the emblem of a country which no longer exists is being replaced by the emblem of a country that has been illegally invaded by the successor of the country who did the invading. You might do well to inform yourself about how Ukraine fared under the Soviet Empire.

Simply because the Soviets helped defeat the Nazis isn’t a justification for keeping Soviet symbols on display in Ukraine. Because, you know, recent events.

Boru

You may be right.
 

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The thing is: I don’t hate the USSR that much. You know, for instance path-finder, the first robot on the surface of Mars, was a result of US and Soviet engineering. Its predecessor was a remotely guided robot that was designed to operate on the Moon (pure Soviet design). The ISS is a result of US-Russia collaboration after the collapse of the Soviet-Union. I’m not saying it was heaven on earth. But Kiev was an important city within that country. So Was Azerbaijan, and Georgia and/or Kazakhstan for instance. There was a different social contract. A social contract that was partly based on Marxist ideology. So I see it as a political venture that didn’t work (for many reasons). DO you know that the game Tetris (a brick falling game that was the predecessor of modern video games) is of Russian design? American contractors had to find the designer of that game in Moscow in the late 80’s to get the royalties and commercialize the game in the rest of the world.
 
Finally, in the 2010’s I went several times to listen to the Red Army Choir. I was very moved when the chief of that orchestra (also a relic of the past) said “War is terrible thing, I hope that no one in uniforms other than us ever comes to this beautiful country”.
 
So I’m not a nostalgic. But Heyç Yuri Gagarin was from the Soviet Union. So that’s all I’m saying.

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