How necessary is it to destroy statues in Ukraine?

[bytebuster]

Людина запитала:
How necessary is it to destroy statues in Ukraine?
They could have preserved them as a part of their history.
At least they could become tourist attractions.

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Моя відповідь: (можете підтримати плюсом :)

There's, indeed, a controversy amongst various people regarding the statues belonging to times of Russian occupation.

There are several considerations here:

1. Those statues are of criminals who obtained top-ranking positions in Russian government and who have proven to have committed numerous crimes against Ukrainian citizens during the whole time of Russian occupation: check
   
   • Holodomor (2.5…7.5 million losses, every eighth),
   • Major losses during Stalin's "Great Purge",
   • 6.8 million (16.3%, every sixth!) of total population losses during WWII,
   • Repressions during post-WWII times, and so on.
2. Note, I don't even include here "small" crimes like using chemical weapons by Russian Marshal Tukhachevsky to suppress anti-Communist rebellion in Tambov area, originally populated with Ukrainian nationals, now is territory of Russia. Indeed, who in Russia has ever cared about 240,000 dead?
3. Both Nazi and Communist propaganda is legally banned in Ukraine. It is against the law to keep those statues, except for historic research or historic show/museums.
4. These statues do not belong to streets and squares. Just likewise you won't find Goebbels' statues or Hitler streets anymore, except for museums.
5. Those statues don't need to be destroyed. When some country wants them, they can deliver them to their own territory and worship these with all due respect. Indeed, these criminals served Russia's intents well, so perhaps they can be considered Russian heroes. No one should tell Russians who are their heroes.
   Or, yes, museums that can earn money for their hosts — but again, no state budget should be spent for maintaining them.
6. (update) Ukraine honors the memory of real heroes of USSR times. For instance, just yesterday the Parliament has named Simferopol International Airport after Amet-Khan Sultan (1920-1971), a Twice-Hero of the Soviet Union.
7. The vast majority of those who "defend the history" are Russian citizens, including the top-ranking officials of that country. They simply have no vote about what to be done on the soil of Ukraine.
8. Those who are citizens of Ukraine do have vote, but it's important to understand who they are and what they actually want: they or their parents have been deported from the various areas of the "Soviet Union" to the emptied lands of Ukraine (total losses of native Ukrainians during 1921-1945 are estimated to be 30-40 million). The Communist regime had no reason to deport decent, socialized citizens to the wastelands. Instead, little criminals who had no social relations have been sent to Ukraine (the Eastern Ukraine and Crimea) along with their families. They and their children are most pro-Communist and pro-Russian, simply because they have never been Ukrainians.

P.S. Pro-Russians Kommunists who "worry" about Keeping the History Intact forget what the Communists did in the first order as soon as they took power. Yes, they have eliminated all statues and monuments belonged to previous regimes. The same happened in most occupied European countries as well.

A monument of the Russian Czar Alexander III destroyed by the Communists. Moscow, 1920
(image courtesy of)