Matthew Quick History is written by the victors

At almost double the height of the Statue of Liberty, Kiev’s Mother Motherland monument was unveiled by Brezhnev only a decade before the USSR voted itself into extinction. She nearly didn’t exist at all: originally twin statues of Lenin and Stalin were planned for the site.

The nine-million-rouble construction cost was controversial from the outset. Current financial shortages mean the ‘eternal’ flame at its base is now only lit on major national holidays.

Like the monuments of antiquity, it may only be a matter of time before the prevailing political creed decides she be ‘re-purposed’ for another use, or scrapped altogether.

- Matthew Quick, 2014