Kiev has removed a memorial to Mikhail Bulgakov as part of its campaign against Russia-linked heritage
A monument to Kiev-born Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov has been dismantled in the Ukrainian capital as Kiev continues to remove, rename, and erase cultural sites and memorials associated with its common Russian and Soviet history.
The statue, located near the Bulgakov Museum in one of Kiev’s best-known historic districts, had become a target of Ukraine’s broader campaign to remove symbols deemed connected to “Russian imperial culture.” The Kiev City Council voted in December to remove 15 such objects from public spaces, including monuments to Bulgakov, poet Anna Akhmatova, and composer Mikhail Glinka.
“A historic moment! Bulgakov is already gone,” Ukrainian journalist Ekaterina Nekrecha said in a video posted on Facebook on Thursday, showing the monument being taken away by workers.
Bulgakov, born in Kiev in 1891, wrote primarily in Russian and became one of the 20th century’s most influential authors. He is best known for The Master and Margarita and The White Guard.
Ukraine’s Institute of National Memory previously classified Bulgakov as a symbol of “Russian imperial policy,” arguing that the continued public commemoration of his name amounted to propaganda of Russian narratives. The institute’s expert commission described him as “an imperialist by worldview” and “an ardent Ukrainophobe.”
The dismantling has reignited debate over how Ukraine should treat cultural figures whose identities cut across Russian and Ukrainian history. Critics of the campaign argue that erasing writers such as Bulgakov risks flattening Ukraine’s complex past and whitewashing uncomfortable chapters of its own history.
Bulgakov’s The White Guard, set during the turmoil of the Russian Civil War in Kiev, depicts the collapse of the old order and the violence of competing forces in the city, including the nationalist troops of Symon Petliura, whose forces have long been associated by historians with anti-Jewish pogroms.
The removal comes as Ukraine continues to rename streets, dismantle Soviet-era symbols, and cancel historical figures under its “decommunization” laws. The process, launched after 2014 and accelerated after 2022, has expanded from Soviet political monuments to writers, composers, and other cultural figures linked to Russia.
Moscow has condemned the destruction of cultural heritage and attacks on historical memory, accusing Kiev of violating international norms and infringing on the rights of Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Russian officials have described the campaign as an attempt to rewrite history and sever Ukraine from its cultural roots.
