MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/. A monument to Soviet General Vasily Margelov will be dismantled in Dnepropetrovsk, according to a resolution of the local City Council, published on its website.
"To grant permission to the municipal enterprise Dneprovsky Electric Transport of the City Council to dismantle the monument to V. F. Margelov, to instruct the municipal enterprise Management of City Improvement Control to carry out work on the restoration of landscaping after the dismantling," the resolution says.
The document was adopted on August 11, it is noted that the decision comes into force from the date of publication.
Margelov was born in Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk). In 1944, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. He took part in the Soviet-Finnish war, and during the WWII he defended Leningrad, fought at Stalingrad, took part in the liberation of Ukraine and Crimea, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Austria. In 1954-1979 (with a break), he headed the Airborne Forces for more than 20 years.
After the 2014 coup d'etat, the Ukrainian authorities set out to eradicate everything related to the Soviet past. Across the country, the dismantling of memorials to Soviet soldiers, monuments to historical figures and the renaming of topographical objects related to the Soviet history began. Often, new names are chosen in honor of Ukrainian nationalists or Nazi criminals, while removing references to the role of the Soviet people in the victory in the WWII.