Monument to Heroes of Battleship 'Potyomkin', Odessa

The Monument to the Sailors of the Battleship Potemkin stands in Customs Square (Tamozhennaya Square), close to the entrance of the Odesa port and at the foot of the famous Potemkin Stairs. Unveiled in 1965, it was created to mark the 60th anniversary of the 1905 mutiny on the Potemkin, an event that Soviet historians framed as an early spark in the revolutionary movement. Although the monument originally stood in Catherine Square, it was relocated in 2007 to make room for the restored statue of Empress Catherine the Great, a monument that has since been removed amid shifting public perspectives on Odesa’s past.

The mutiny itself remains one of the most widely known episodes in revolutionary history. During the summer of 1905, sailors aboard the battleship rebelled against their Tsarist officers, protesting harsh conditions and the broader political climate under the Russian Empire. The event gained international attention and later became a symbol of resistance, regarded as a precursor to the 1917 Russian Revolution. Its cultural impact grew even larger through Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 film The Battleship Potemkin, which turned the uprising into one of the most influential works of early cinema.

This cinematic legacy is reflected directly in the monument’s design. Rather than showing a historically accurate moment, the sculpture depicts six sailors throwing off a tarpaulin—an image borrowed from Eisenstein’s film rather than real events. Locals, with characteristic Odesa humor, jokingly nicknamed it “the monument to 50 cents,” imagining the sailors scrambling for a lost coin.

Designed by architect V. Bogdanov with contributions from M. Volkov and Yu. Lapin, the monument is made of bronze and includes an inscription quoting Lenin, who referred to the Potemkin as an “unvanquished territory of the Revolution.” Today, it stands as part of Odesa’s layered historical landscape, giving visitors insight into the city’s Soviet-era narratives and its ongoing re-evaluation of the past.