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Thursday, October 30th, 2008
Mother Motherland

Mother Motherland is a huge statue overlooking Kiev, Ukraine, and stands atop the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. It was built by the Soviet Union as a memorial to the Great Patriotic War, better known to us as the Eastern Front of World War II.


With the base, it stands 102m (334 feet), slightly taller than the Statue of Liberty (about 300 feet including base). The speaker in the foreground is one many throughout the museum/park playing traditional patriotic songs in Russian and Ukrainian. This is like an American museum looping a flute and snare drum. The sounds have a dramatic effect and occupy another sense of the overall experience. To the right, a Scud missle peaks over the hill from another part of the war exhibit.

Ukrainians in Kiev seem to resent their historical connection with Soviet Russia (Ukraine gained independence after the 1991 collapse of Russia). The statue was described by our host as the Statue of Freedom, similar to our Statue of Liberty; however, the original meaning of the statue is something completely different - the bloody conquering of Eastern Europe. I sensed an internal conflict in the people of Kiev between pride in their city and shame in its Communist history, much like the Southern US and slavery. This conflict was most evident in younger Ukrainians, with which we interacted most. However, our Chernobyl tour guide, a man in his mid 40's, seemed to regret Russia's collapse, which he attributed to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and the immense cost of clean-up until Russia's demise in 1991 (clean-up continues today as an international effort).