Kyiv Removes Tchaikovsky’s Name From Its National Music Academy

Dec. 31—Ukraine’s Culture Ministry announced yesterday the removal of Tchaikovsky’s name from Ukraine’s Tchaikovsky National Music Academy, despite the man and the name actually being of Ukrainian origin. In a statement yesterday, 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 the saying, ‘cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face,’ Kyiv has de-legitimized Tchaikovsky, despite the name and family originating in Ukraine. 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 2/3 of the way from Kyiv to Kharkiv.) He studied at the Kyiv Academy and then pursued advanced studies at Saint 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 Kyiv’s broader campaign to remove symbols linked to Ukraine’s shared history with Russia. The Kyiv City Council had also recently voted to dismantle 15 monuments and memorials, including those dedicated to the renowned Ukrainian writer Mikhail Bulgakov (born in Kyiv) 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.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted that such Nazi-like action of the Kyiv regime against Russian culture and the Russian language itself must be reversed as part of any peace plan, and this concept was drafted into the original 28 point American plan.