The writer Isaac Babel is memorialized in the act of creative thinking, eyes on the horizon and pen resting on a stack of paper, in a bronze statue in downtown Odesa — his home city on Ukraine’s Black Sea shore.
The statue may soon be dismantled. To Ukrainian authorities, it is a threat that must be eliminated under a so-called decolonization law ordering the removal of “symbols of Russian imperial politics” to protect Ukrainian culture. The law ensnared the statue of Babel, who served in the Soviet Red Army and built part of his literary career in Russia early last century.
The planned removal has prompted strong pushback from many Odesa residents. They argue that in his classic “Odessa Stories” and elsewhere, Babel’s writings about the city’s Jewish heritage and its gritty world of smugglers and artists of every ethnicity helped make Odesa famous and showcased its multicultural identity.
Much as they oppose Russia’s war, they fear that the law will erase Odesa’s character. “You can’t remove Babel,” said Antonina Poletti, 41, the editor of a local news outlet and a sixth-generation Odesan. “If you remove him, you remove the soul of the city.”
The city is already enduring the ordeal of Russia’s invasion, with drones and missiles hitting it every other night. Now a cultural battle is dividing Odesa, with the Babel statue a flashpoint. The spark was the decolonization law, which was part of a broader effort in wartime Ukraine to sever ties with Russian heritage and build an identity free of its influence.
The statue of Isaac Babel slated for removal.Credit…Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times