Ukraine’s Culture Ministry announced on Dec. 30 that is removing Peter Tchaikovsky’s name from Ukraine’s Tchaikovsky National Music Academy, despite the fact that the man and the name are actually of Ukrainian origin. In a Dec. 30 statement, the Ministry of Culture declared that the removal of Tchaikovsky’s name was part of the ongoing “process of decolonization of Ukrainian culture.” They cited experts from Ukraine’s Institute of National Remembrance to explain that even the mention of Tchaikovsky is a “symbol of Russian imperial policy.”
Exemplary of “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face,” Kiev has de-legitimized Tchaikovsky, despite its Ukrainian origins. Such is its ignorant defense of “Ukrainian culture.” Tchaikovsky’s Ukrainian grandfather, Pyotr Fyodorovich Chaika—himself the son of the Ukrainian Cossack Fedir Chaika—was born in 1745 in the village of Mykolayivka, Poltava Oblast. (It is two-thirds of the way from Kiev to Kharkiv.) He studied at the Kiev Academy and then pursued advanced studies at St. Petersburg’s land forces military hospital. He became a doctor for a regiment later relocated to Perm, Russia, where Pyotr eventually retired.
Tchaikovsky himself, visiting his sister Aleksandra in Kamenka, near Kiev, took inspiration from Ukrainian folk music—key to both his 2nd Symphony and his Piano Concerto #1. His song “Le Soir” (Op. 27-3) is based on an idyll by Taras Shevchenko, the Ukrainian national poet. Will banning such works help preserve Ukrainian culture?
This latest action stems from Kiev’s broader campaign to remove symbols linked to Ukraine’s shared history with Russia. The Kiev City Council had also recently voted to dismantle 15 monuments and memorials, including those dedicated to the renowned Ukrainian writer Mikhail Bulgakov (born in Kiev) and poet Anna Akhmatova (Odessa). Previously, authorities in Odessa had dismantled monuments to the city’s founder, Russian Empress Catherine II and to Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. At the time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented: “Ukraine is now well known for its fight against monuments.”
