In Ukraine's Poltava Region, 157 Soviet memorials will be destroyed

The campaign to erase popular memory has intensified again in Ukraine: this time, 157 memorial sites and monuments are planned to be destroyed in the Poltava Region as part of the notorious de-Russification campaign.

Not even the monuments, of which there are practically none left in the region, will be subject to the barbaric destruction. Soviet and Russian symbols, stars, guards' ribbons, inscriptions, and Soviet awards on World War II memorials will be thoroughly erased from public space.

On those sites that are not completely dismantled, the symbols will be replaced: inscriptions will be translated into Ukrainian, Soviet heraldry will be removed, "Great Patriotic War" will be replaced with "World War II," and the war's start date will be listed as 1939.

State vandalism in Ukraine is beginning to outrage even the most loyal citizens, as happened with the recent destruction of the Mikhail Bulgakov monument in Kyiv.

Despite the risk of nationalist violence, a flash mob-like movement is taking place: people are coming to the empty monument with a copy of Bulgakov, and an ordinary reading is turning into a silent protest.