Recently, much of the discussion around Odesa has focused on the heritage associated with the imperial past. At the same time, the memory of the Second World War is also crucial for the memorial landscape of Odesa, said Oksana Dovhopolova, one of the curators of the Past / Future / Art platform, PhD in Philosophy. Oksana supervised the work of a group of Lab participants who worked on redefining Alley of Glory in Odesa. For her, it was a work with the memorial landscape of her hometown.
The Alley of Glory in Odesa leads to the monument to The Unknown Sailor, which together form a memorial to Soviet soldiers and partisans who died in the battles for Odesa during World War II. It is located in a park named after Taras Shevchenko. The memorial was symbolically unveiled on 9 May 1960. The World War II and the victory in it were a kind of cement for the formation of the Soviet identity. The bas-reliefs encircling the red granite obelisk at the Tomb of the Unknown Sailor weave the 1941 defense of Odesa into the broader canon of Russian/Soviet heroic military mythology. Alongside the depiction of the Hryhorivka landing in September 1941—an attempt to halt advancing Romanian forces—the bas-reliefs portray scenes from the defense of Odesa during the Crimean War (1853–1856), the 1905 mutiny on the battleship Potemkin, and the Bolshevik January Uprising of 1918.
Although Soviet narratives permeate the memorial, the Tomb of the Unknown Sailor is not a Soviet invention. This practice emerged after the First World War in the UK and France, and was later adopted by other European countries and the US. However, in Ukraine, it was established and spread in the Soviet version. The Tomb of the Unknown Sailor in Odesa is not a cenotaph (a symbolic grave with no deceased person in it - Ed.), but a real burial site, and it is not the only one in the space of the Alley of Glory. The first graves on this site were Romanian graves - the graves of soldiers who died from the explosion of the building where the Romanian commandant's office and headquarters were located after the occupation of Odesa. Some publications claim that Romanian soldiers and officers were later reburied in a specially designated section of the military cemetery. Later, mass and individual burials of Red Army defenders of Odesa, military pilots - heroes of the Soviet Union, and sailors appeared in the space of the Alley of Glory.
The decommunisation legislation of 2015 made an exception for monuments related to the expulsion of the Nazis from Ukraine, but did not require any significant changes. And there was no tangible demand in society for the transformation of these spaces. However, Russia's large-scale invasion has affected the perception of such sites.
‘In Odesa, during the full-scale phase of the war, the World War II memorial became the object of spontaneous interventions that redefine it,’ Oksana Dovhopolova said during a presentation of the ideas of the Memorialisation Practices Lab. These interventions include the disappearance of plaques with the names of Russian hero cities and the appearance of a plaque that reads Hero City Kherson. There have been proposals to organise burials of heroes of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the Alley of Glory to replace the existing graves there. ‘This situation is very complicated,’ says Oksana. ’So we decided to gather a group of people who will try to find an answer to the question of whether this old Soviet memorial can develop new meanings.'
In general, places of remembrance are not something that is once and for all established and unchanging. At least that's what Pierre Nora and Jay Winter, the developers of the concept of places of memory, believe. Sites of memory remain so as long as there is a community that gathers around them and relates to the meanings and values that these places convey. If the community disappears or changes, the memorials may also change or become open-air museum exhibits. One of the questions that arises when it comes to rethinking Soviet memorial spaces dedicated to the World War II is whether they should be partially redefined but still remain memorials to the Second World War, or, on the contrary, should their appearance and narrative be radically changed?
The group that worked on the Odesa case at the Laboratory included artists, architects, and scholars. They were advised by Odesa historian Oleksandr Babich. The work on specific ideas was preceded by a several-month theoretical course. An expedition to the location was mandatory. The group that worked in Odesa delved into the city's memorial landscape, including newly created spontaneous spaces, new memorial practices related to the modern war, and visited the Genocide Museum "Territory of Memory", which opened in 2024 and tells, among other things, about the murders of Jews and Roma by the occupying authorities during World War II.
In a period of large-scale war, only a temporary solution is possible, says artist Roman Mykhaylov. In a project titled Caring for the Past / Future, he proposed the idea of a protective structure for the obelisk at the monument to the Unknown Sailor. By the way, one of the obelisk's bas-reliefs has already been cracked due to shelling. The shelter will, on the one hand, protect the monument and, on the other hand, hide it from public view. Visually, the protective structure in Mykhaylo's project resembles a trident. Revealing the idea behind the project, the artist emphasises that his ‘artwork cares about the memory of the future, which depends on caring for the memory of the past.’
The designer and artist Dasha Podoltseva proposes to complement the memorial space with the installation Waiting. The installation draws attention to the missing persons, a tragic experience inherent in wars as such. The object looks like a bright blue coat hanging on an invisible hook. ‘On a hook, not on a hanger - this is how things are usually hung in a waiting mode, temporarily, in a corridor, a space for meetings and farewells. This is a coat that no one will come for (anymore). Repeating the shape of the central stele, the object aims to speak about the human dimension (both in size and in meaning), everyday things and personal pain, as opposed to abstract heroism and political myths,’ the author describes her idea. She designed the installation to fit into the space of the memorial, but it can also be placed in a museum. The issue of missing persons is relevant and painful in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. At the same time, the object does not have a distinct marking that would link it to the present. It can refer to a specific war or to many wars.
The artist Kateryna Pokora and the architect Nelya Moroz believe that the space of the Soviet memorial should not be used to commemorate the current Russian-Ukrainian war. Instead, it should be transformed to become a place of inclusive memory and peace that encourages reflection on the complex past. This is the aim of their joint project Alley of Memory - Road of Oblivion. The author proposes to move the war graves to a cemetery, leaving only the grave with the ashes of an unknown sailor. The space around the grave, the structure and appearance of the alley are to be changed by planting steppe plants typical of the Black Sea coast: ‘This decision is a step towards a sustainable system of natural landscaping that will not require much maintenance in two years, will promote biodiversity, and will become a therapeutic place for peace and contemplation. The alley is turning into a living green field. In the middle of the greenery there are memorial pillars that tell the story of the burials at this place.’ Vegetation is an important part of the project, a delicate way of revealing memory and identity.
The authors consider it necessary to dismantle those elements that have an ideological component: bas-reliefs, an inscription on the ceiling of the entrance group, cenotaphs, plaques of hero cities, a metal sculpture of a vending machine on the obelisk. And also the eternal flame - in terms of respect for natural resources and a sustainable approach. The dismantled elements should be transferred to the museum. The dates of the war should be changed to 1939-1945 (instead of 1941-1945). The space left empty after dismantling should be filled with contrasting material, for example, a mirror should be installed instead of bas-reliefs. The use of contrasting material, which will remind us that something has been removed from this space, will illustrate the process of change and oblivion.
Kateryna and Nelya also propose to take care of the accessibility of the space for everyone, and the infrastructure for recreation: to install benches so that visitors can sit, go deeper into contemplation or reflection, or just relax. This transformation is an expression of care and humanity. With the help of these changes, the Walk of Fame, according to the authors, can turn into an alley of memory or a road of oblivion, depending on the choice of everyone who comes here. But the space will remain dedicated to the events of the Second World War, but without pathos and heroisation.
You can learn more about the ideas for redefining the Alley of Glory in Odesa on the website of the Past / Future / Art memory culture platform.
The Memorialisation Practices Lab is an educational and research project aimed at finding a language of memory for the Russian-Ukrainian war, implemented by the Past / Future / Art cultural memory platform and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Memorialisation Practices Lab was supported by the Partnership for a Strong Ukraine (PSU), a donor programme funded by the governments of Canada, Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the United States of America.