Mourning Savings Lost
A monument to people’s savings lost with the collapse of the Soviet Union will be erected in Vinnytsia, made from molten Soviet kopeck coins. Local residents have already submitted almost 350 kilograms of coins.
The idea was conceived by a Vinnytsia-based journalist Volodymyr Yerukhov, while Hryhory Derun, director general of the local jewelry firm Diadema, undertook to make it a reality.
“Although this monument is meant to inspire mournful feelings, it will have a funny shape,” says Hryhory Derun, “as we want the people to stop missing their lost savings and remember them with a smile, considering that the hryvnia is stable enough.”
It has been decided to unveil the monument on Independence Day, as graphic evidence of today’s stable currency. Word has it that Mr. Tyhypko will attend the ceremony. Official information is that the unveiling ceremony will take place on May 24, because the Diadema store notice reads “Twenty-Four Carats.” As the Ukrainian saying has it, just start a campfire and there will always be people willing to warm themselves by it. In fact, the project has shown some “dividends,” considering that Diadema presented a local granny with a gold bracelet and a young fellow with a gold chain as prizes for donating the largest number of Soviet coins.
The old woman brought 38 kilograms of coins and the young fellow beat all records lugging over 52 kilos, collected by the whole family as a future wedding gift. Now it was a present for all of Vinnytsia. Besides, the organizers believe that people from other places will come to see the monument. The mayor says the local authorities would support the project and would allocate a good site. Some even joke that the best site would be in front of the National Bank. So far, however, everybody discusses not the site, but the monument which is still being kept secret. What is known is that it will be sixty centimeters high and will portray a human being. Only part of the kopecks will be molten, the rest will be piled up.
“Elders will be able not only to tell their children about what money they used to have, but also show what has come of it,” continues Hryhory Derun.
Possibly, a transparent cube will be mounted by the kopeck monument, with a note inviting people to deposit Soviet banknotes, after writing on them their attitude toward the money coup. With time, money thus collected will be used for a museum exposition.
