A monument to a fictional Russian character, paratrooper Stepochkin, was erected last weekend in Brest.
Paratrooper Stepochkin is a character of Timur Kurbanaliev’s cartoon about a teenager who joined the paratroopers, in secret from his mother and military registration and enlistment office. Gradually, he became a real paratrooper and even won at US armed forces competition.
The site of the Brest city executive committee calls this sculpture a gift to the Brest residents from Russian and Belarus paratroopers.
The initiative to install the sculpture belongs to Major-General of the Russian Army Alexander Kulik. The opening of the monument was attended by Vladimir Shamanov, chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the VII convocation.
It is known that Shamanov was a participant of military operations during the Nagorono Karabakh conflict, he fought on the side of Azerbaijan. Shamanov (a member of the party “United Russia”) also led military operations during the war in Chechnya, he also led the operation to occupy Abkhazia.
Brest paratroopers from the 38th Guards Airborne Assault Brigade regularly participate in joint exercises with their Russian counterparts, including those who fought in Ukraine.
The biography of the sculptor Alexei Chumakov also speaks volumes. He was born in Russian Orsk. He graduated from the Leningrad Nakhimov Naval School, later the Kiev Higher Naval Political School and after graduation was assigned to serve in Sevastopol. He still considers himself a citizen of the USSR. He is currently living in Brest
The Russian trace is also present in the career of the head of Brest Alyaksandr Rahachuk. He graduated from the Kurgan Higher Military-Political Aviation School. And it was Rahachuk who agreed to put up this dubious sculpture in Brest.
