The Viktor Bazhan Poltava Art Museum intends to acquire the monument to Russian writer Mykhail Bulgakov, which was dismantled in Kyiv on June 4, 2026, from the sculptor’s family. This action is planned to preserve it for future generations.
Viktor Bazhan, the founder of the museum, shared this information with Suspilne.
“I plan to purchase the monument to preserve it for posterity and to relieve the sculptor’s daughter, who currently owns the monument, of this burdensome responsibility. I am concerned about the disappearance of artistic heritage. Mykhail Bulgakov is a globally renowned writer, translated into numerous languages. Naturally, I do not intend to promote or glorify Bulgakov; that is also prohibited by law. Therefore, I will not create an exhibition from the monument. My intention is simply to keep it for safekeeping in the museum’s courtyard. This is my private property,” explained Viktor Bazhan.
According to him, negotiations regarding the monument’s price are currently underway with the sculptor’s family. Subsequently, the monument will be transported and installed in the courtyard of the Bazhan museum.
Who was Mykhail Bulgakov and his connection to Kyiv
Mykhail Bulgakov was a writer of Russian origin, born in Kyiv, where he spent a significant portion of his life and where a literary-memorial museum in his former residence currently operates.
While his persona and literary works are closely tied to Kyiv’s history, he did not support the idea of Ukrainian independence and expressed negative views regarding the formation of Ukrainian statehood and its leaders.
An expert commission from the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance concluded that his literary legacy contains manifestations of biased and negative attitudes towards the Ukrainian world, the Ukrainian language, and statehood, and that his works represent an imperial stance that denies the existence of the Ukrainian nation as a distinct value.
Bulgakov’s writings feature crude caricatures and grotesque portrayals of Ukrainians, and his works are interpreted as reflecting a segment of Russian imperial policy that denied Ukrainians the right to their own identity.
On December 18, 2025, the Kyiv City Council supported the removal of an additional 15 objects and specific elements connected to the Russian Empire and the USSR from Kyiv’s streets. In particular, it was decided to dismantle the Bulgakov monument.
The decision sparked lively public debate: some Ukrainians view it as a logical step in de-Russification, while others deem it “cultural destruction” or “hasty decommunization.”
Specifically, Oleksandr Bon, a Candidate of Historical Sciences, noted that the decision, though delayed, is necessary. In his opinion, removing monuments has nothing to do with “banning culture” – it is merely a rejection of imperial symbols that subconsciously foster a sense of Ukrainian cultural inferiority.
Writer Oksana Zabuzhko expressed a similar sentiment. She urged for it to be seen as clearing space from “monumental propaganda of the Kremlin.”
Conversely, writer Lada Luzina characterized the claims of Bulgakov’s “Ukrainophobia” as manipulation, arguing that there is no concrete evidence of his anti-Ukrainian sentiments. Publisher Oleksandr Krasovitsky remarked that while the writer was part of imperial Kyiv, he was simultaneously a figure of world literary canon.
The monument to Mykhail Bulgakov on Andriyivskyy Descent in Kyiv was dismantled on June 4, 2026.