On Kyiv Day a unique monument to Mikhail Panikovsky, hero of Ilf and Petrov’s The Golden Calf (itself a monument of Odesa Jewish Russian humorous literature), was unveiled at the corner of Khreshchatyk and Prorizna, thanks to the Etalon Bank’s contribution of Hr 35,000. The character specialized in faking blindness, asking people to help him cross the street, and picking their pockets on the way.
On June 3 at 10 a.m. a four-person delegation from the Socialist Party of Ukraine, led by Kyiv coordinator of the Bloc of Left Forces Vasyl Arestov, arrived with two bouquets, one blue and one yellow, to lay at the fictional panhandler’s feet, reports Inna Zolotukhina.
Comrade Arestov delivered a short speech saying that the bankers had picked the perfect time to erect the monument. The favorite of both the poor and of aphorists symbolizes perfectly Ukraine’s seemingly eternal economic crisis, adding that the fact that local officialdom consented to the statue’s erection testified also to their also being swindlers and thieves, only much more successful than the Odesa ne’er-do-well, who could never have dreamed that one could steal a whole factory.
After leaving next to the monument a cardboard sign reading, “To poor Panikovsky from the poor of Ukraine,” the Socialist Party representatives left giving even symbolic alms to a nearby beggar. “Too bad, destroyed people,” Anton, a graduate on one of Kyiv’s high schools cited the hero of The Golden Calf.
This whimsical new addition to the downtown landscape, so much in contrast with the gigantic projects favored by the officialdom, both Soviet and post-Soviet, is much visited by the locals and tourists, constantly photographed, and even proposed by Ukrainian astronaut Leonid Kadeniuk a joint project to man the first Ukrainian-Jewish spacecraft. Panikovsky would have certainly enjoyed the fundraising. Given the current wrangling in Verkhovna Rada, there are those who consider him to be a natural Speaker, a perfect representative of today’s People’s Deputies.
Photo by Viktor Marushchenko, The Day:
To the beggar from the beggar







