Turku announced on Thursday that it would remove the statue of Lenin from the street scene. Another Russian statue has also sparked critical debate.
Turku the city announced on Thursday to remove the bust of Lenin VI From Puolalanmäki. The statue standing next to the art museum has sparked debate from time to time and its removal has been called for many times. Now with the war in Ukraine the mayor Minna Invoice (kok) considered that the statue was no longer relevant to the street scene in Turku.
Lenin’s image is a gift from Leningrad to Turku from 1977. However, there is another statue in Turku that has a direct connection to the current conflict between Russia and the West. In front of the Turku Main Library, at the Riverside Parade, there is a sculpture called Meeting in Turku in 1812. It is a bronze work by the Russian Andrei Kovaltshuk depicting the Russian emperor. Alexander I’s and the Crown Prince of Sweden Kaarle Juhanan negotiation.
At the meeting, Sweden and Russia agreed Napoleon anti-union. The meeting is considered to have sealed Finland’s transition to Russia.
The statue was erected in 2012, two hundred years after the historic meeting. The initiative for the statue project came from the Russian Consulate General. On social media, the preservation of the statue has provoked criticism.
Head of International Affairs in Turku Mika Akkanen says that the removal of the Alexander Statue in Turku has not been discussed.
“Its context is a little different than the statue of Lenin. It describes a meeting of Russian and Swedish leaders. Of course, it was erected in Turku in cooperation with the Russian side, ”says Akkanen.
The Turku City Government discussed the statue presentation from the Russians in May 2012. The then minutes state that “The Governor of St. Petersburg GS Poltavchenko The representatives of the City of Turku expressed their active support for the project when they met ”.
Georgi Poltavtsenko is known as the President of Russia Vladimir Putin as a close ally and former KGB officer. In 2018, he took over the management of the Russian maritime industry group OSK under the leadership of St. Petersburg.
In early April, the United States added Poltavchenko to its sanctions list. As justification, the United States stated that OSK was responsible for building Russian warships.
Turku Akkanen admits that he was unaware of the sanctions against Poltavchenko. He suspects that Poltavchenko’s role in the background of the Turku statue was not particularly great. However, he does not know what the “active support” recorded in the city’s minutes meant in practice.
“It’s probably just been such a throw from him. At the meeting, he has told us what he has thought. ”
According to Akkanen, the former governor’s connections to the Russian military machinery do not give cause to reconsider the context of the Turku statue.
Akkanen says that the Russians would have originally wanted to erect a statue of Emperor Alexander alone in Turku.
“The city leadership then took the line that nothing would be taken here from the statue of Alexander. It would have been a sign of Russia’s power over Finland. The city stated that the statue must be fair and the Russians then accepted it. ”
The costs were agreed to be borne equally. The Turku City Government set aside 125,000 euros for the statue project.
“Then I don’t know what happened on the Russian side. But we had this amount, ”Akkanen recalls.
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