Ukrainian museum moves to ‘decolonise’ history

The quiet and echoing rooms of the museum in Poltava, dedicated to an 18th-century battle in central Ukraine, have a struggle: the war-torn country on how far to go in recasting Russia’s role in history.

- Romain Colas

The Russian invasion has seen Ukraine step up sweeping “de-colonisation” measures, including the removal of symbols of tsarist and Soviet domination. Kyiv’s efforts to remove Soviet monuments and symbols began in 2014, when Russian forces annexed Crimea and seized parts of the east of the country. But new laws passed in the second year of Russia’s full-scale invasion seek to go even further, forcing the Poltava museum to respond to claims it has gone too far and rewrite Kremlin-approved narratives. The sleepy city, around 350 kilometres (220 miles) east of Kyiv, was the scene of a decisive June 1709 battle when the forces of Russia’s Tsar Peter the Great defeated the troops of Sweden’s King Charles XII in what is widely seen as the moment when Russia became a major European power.