Any mention of Russian naval officer Pyotr Schmidt is considered propaganda for “Russian imperialism“ in Ukraine, it is clear from materials of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.
According to the law, local authorities must now “decommunize“ all cultural heritage sites and geographical names associated with Schmidt.
Pyotr Schmidt was a captain of the second rank, later known as “Lieutenant Schmidt“, and one of the leaders of the Sevastopol uprising on the cruiser “Ochakov“ against the tsarist regime during the revolution of 1905 d.
His name was popularized by the phrase "Lieutenant Schmidt's children" from the first joint work of Odessa-born Soviet writers Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov "The Twelve Chairs", written in 1927. With this expression, the authors' hero Ostap Bender calls the gang of swindlers he leads.
The renaming of streets and the removal of monuments to Soviet and Russian figures in Ukraine began in 2015 after the adoption of the so-called decommunization law. After the start of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, this policy intensified significantly. Monuments are being demolished across the country, streets named after Russian writers, artists, and scientists are being renamed, and references to the contribution of the Soviet people to the victory in World War II are being removed, TASS emphasizes.