Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Ukrainian students take care of Swedish monument



The monument to the fallen Swedish warriors erected by their compatriots near the village Pobyvanka is one of the most interesting sights of the Poltava Battle field. About 5,000 Swedish crowns were collected in the beginning of 20th century from citizens throughout Sweden for a big granite stone (6 m height, 20 ton weight) from the Vånevik quarry in Småland (Kalmar län). The memorial stone was unveiled on June 2nd 1909 close to the hamlet of Pobyvanka without any public ceremony. A small article “De svenskes vård öfver stupade svenska hjältar” dedicated to the event was published on July 7th 1909 in the Swedish newspaper “Stockholms Dagblad.”
Although The City Council of Poltava has discussed what needs to be done to routinely maintain the monument, nothing has been changed recently. Only in 2004 the monument was wholly reconstructed thanks to donation of Tetra Pak Ukraine company. Since that time the monument is almost neglected. On Spetember 19th 2009 a group of students from Poltava Agrarian Academy including three students from Public's Republic of China under the head of LTC Oleg Bezverkhnii and teacher Elena Koschenko have collected a lot of garbage around the monument. During this ecological action Oleg Bezverkhnii has told them a touching story about Great Northern war and it decisive battle.

Students also visited the monument dedicated to the reconciliation between Sweden, Russia, and Ukraine that was opened on June 27th, 2009 when these countries were marking 300th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava.
Learn more about Swedish monument at
http://www.battle.poltava.ua/svensk/swedish_monument.htm