The Russians added the monument “Legendary Tachanka” in Kakhovka to the list of their cultural heritage.
This was reported by the occupation head of the city, Pavlo Filipchuk.
“Earlier I wrote that we submitted documents to include our legendary “Tachanka” in the register of monuments of federal significance. And now, the Head of the Government of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Mishustin, has signed a Government order that included the monument “Legendary Tachanka” in the unified state register of objects of cultural heritage (monuments of history and culture) of the peoples of the Russian Federation. The only monument from Kherson Oblast! The document has been published on the official legal portal”, – they wrote on Filipchuk’s page.
“The “Legendary Tachanka” was unveiled at the end of October 1967. The sculpture is made of bronze and stands 8 meters high. In 1983 it was declared a monument of local historical significance.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union the monument was repeatedly looted; parts of the metal structures were cut out.
In 2006 the Tachanka was partially restored.
In the winter of 2015-2016, after the law on decommunization was passed, a decommunization commission was created in Kakhovka. During its meetings a proposal was voiced to create on the site of the “Legendary Tachanka” a museum of monumental propaganda of the totalitarian era. However, the city leadership flatly refused this idea and did not return to the issue of the monument’s further fate.
On January 15, 2020, the mayor of Kakhovka, Andriy Dyachenko, stated that the Institute of National Remembrance demands the dismantling of the “Legendary Tachanka” as a symbol of communism. To confirm his words he showed a letter from the Institute dated December 4. The letter states that the Institute received an inquiry regarding the Kakhovka mayor’s office’s implementation of the decommunization law in relation to the dismantling of the monuments “Legendary Tachanka” and “Girl in a greatcoat”, and asks for a response. Then Dyachenko announced the start of a campaign to protect the monument.