Most are bizzare, downright ugly, and commemorate bad things. But that Kiev War memorial is a normal large statue with a sword, and commmorates 2 battles where at least 800,000 died in the Nazi war.
Not really that weird.
The Kiev memorial is hardly “crappy”.
“I’m originally from Kiev, and the WWII museum that the mother motherland is standing on is a really awesome museum.
That dome right below her, you can see giant windows in it - it’s really huge, and the walls/ceiling (lol it’s a dome) has the names of all the Soviet people who died in the war.
Well, that’s what i remember...like 6 million of us died, so maybe it’s not all of them...but still, i went there when i was like 10, and i remember it clearly, it’s quite powerful.”
Compare it to real “crap” over here, MLK’s “Chinesed Thug”, Eisenhower’s “Little Kid”, or the Flight 93 “Crescent of Embrace”.
Looks like the artist could use a lot of help with anatomy; the central figure holding the large tongue depressor looks like it was hit by a truck, allowed to stiffen and was then propped back up in some scrap from a decommissioned factory.
Been there. The style is called "Socialist Realism" (not kidding). The actual war museum, particularly the interior is very affecting.
There is another memorial in Balaclava in Crimea built on a hill. What you come to realize is that you are standing on a giant mass grave.
Ukraine really took a battering during "The Great Patriotic War."